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The Trump administration has reportedly warned more than 1,100 Environmental Protection Agency employees working on climate change, reducing air pollution, and other programs that they could be “immediately” terminated at any time.
The notice was sent to staff members who were hired within the past year and have probationary status, according to The New York Times.
“As a probationary/trial period employee, the agency has the right to immediately terminate you,” an email reviewed by the publication and CNN said. A screenshot of the email was shared online by Government Executive’s Eric Katz.
Some of those affected include experienced federal workers who had taken up new assignments within the agency, The Times said Monday. Trump also fired the EPA’s inspector general, according to Bloomberg Law.
“EPA is the center of the bullseye for President Trump’s vindictive purge of public servants. Trump’s wealthiest supporters won’t be satisfied until they tear EPA down, leaving corporate polluters in charge of the air we breathe and the water we drink,” Environmental Protection Network Senior Advisor Jeremy Symons told The Independent in a statement on Monday. Environmental Protection Network is made up of 650 former EPA staff.
“It’s bad. I’ve been with the agency for over 33 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Marie Owens-Powell, the president of the union that represents more than 8,500 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency, told CBS News.
The Independent’s request for comment from the EPA was not immediately returned.
A spokesperson for the agency said in a statement to the paper that its “goal is to be transparent.”
“Ultimately, the goal is to create a more effective and efficient federal government that serves all Americans,” EPA Office of Public Affairs Associate Administrator Molly Vaseliou said to The Times.
The reason for potential terminations is unclear, but comes following a funding freeze and a push by the administration to eradicate climate change from federal webpages.
While climate webpages remained on the EPA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites on Monday – despite a message from the CDC noting that its website is “being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders” – the Department of Agriculture’s was scoured last week.
The Department of Agriculture had been asked to unpublish climate-related landing pages, archive them, and document content in a spreadsheet for later review. One climate-related page remained.
EPA workers seem to be the first to receive a notice that they could be dismissed immediately.
During his first term, Trump had effectively gutted the agency, and rolled back a myriad of environmental regulations. Many of those affected by this notice were hired to close those gaps, The Times said.
It’s no secret that the president’s agenda clashes with the work of scientists and the protection of the American people. Trump, who has pledged to “drill, baby, drill,” is backed by the polluting and planet-warming fossil fuel industry. The health and environmental impacts of emissions from fossil fuel production come with deadly consequences.
During his confirmation hearing, now-Administrator Lee Zeldin had told senators that he believes in the threat of climate change, unlike Trump. Zeldin said he believed Trump was more critical of climate policies and economic costs than the existential threat itself.
The cost of not tackling climate change will be trillions of dollars each year without action, recent reports have found.
“We must, with urgency, be addressing these issues,” he told Vermont Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Source: independent.co.uk
