The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will shift the focus of its science researchers toward program offices — including the approval of new chemicals.
In a press release issued Friday, the EPA said it would be “shifting its scientific expertise and research efforts,” including by transferring 130 experts to the agency’s chemicals office.
It said that these employees would work on approving new chemicals and pesticides — noting there’s currently a backlog of 504 chemicals and 12,000 pesticides.
More broadly, agency science will be transferred to its program offices, and scientists will be put to work on what the agency described as “statutory obligations and mission essential functions.”
Chitra Kumar, a former official in the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, said the agency’s Office of Research Development is “intentionally separate from EPA’s policy offices, ensuring it produces unbiased studies.”
“Its research is transparent and always subjected to rigorous, independent external peer review… Moving ORD scientists into policy offices could subject those experts to political influence, particularly in this administration,” said Kumar, who is now managing director of the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a written statement.
In a video accompanying the press release, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the changes were part of a broader reshaping of the agency and, in the future, the agency’s staffing levels could be reduced.
“This is all part of a larger, comprehensive effort to restructure the agency, and when finalized, EPA expects to have staffing levels near those seen when President Ronald Reagan occupied the White House,” Zeldin said.
Welcome to The Hill’s Energy & Environment newsletter, I’m Rachel Frazin — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains.
Seventeen Democrat-led states are suing the Trump administration over its moves to hold up wind energy development on public lands and in public waters.
Multiple refineries in California have recently declared their intentions to shutter operations, leaving the Golden State uncertain about future fuel supplies and impacts on prices at the pump.
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Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio)
Christine Todd Whitman, Former Administrator of the EPA
The Department of Justice on Monday said a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration seeking to sharply restrict the abortion pill mifepristone should be dismissed, continuing the position of the Biden administration. Read more
Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-N.Y.) town hall in his suburban swing district devolved into chaos Sunday evening as attendees lobbed boos and questions about President Trump before some were removed by law enforcement. Read more
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