Former environmental chiefs blast EPA’s retreat

Under President Donald Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency is abandoning its core mission to protect the air, water and human health, former leaders of the agency told Congress on Tuesday.

“Under the current administration, the EPA is retreating from its historic mission to protect our environment and the health of the public from environmental hazards,” said Republican Christine Todd Whitman, who led the agency under former President George W. Bush.

Whitman was testifying before a House panel alongside three other former EPA administrators — only one of whom is a Democrat — as the agency moves to ease rules governing emissions from oil wells, automobiles and power plants.

“Agency leadership has been on a seemingly unstoppable crusade to roll back rules with seemingly little regard to the health impacts of their rollbacks,” Gina McCarthy, a Democrat who led the EPA under former President Barack Obama, said in her submitted testimony. “EPA is going backward on health protections in favor of lowering costs to polluting industries at every turn.”

Representatives of the EPA did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The former EPA chiefs testifying Tuesday shared similar worries: eroding morale, resignations of skilled career staff and moves to shrink the role of science in agency decisions, despite growing alarm about climate change. The former administrators also underscored that environmental protection historically hasn’t been a partisan issue.