Lee Zeldin, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is on a visit to New England this week, where he has encountered significant pushback from agency staff in Boston.
As a close ally of President Donald Trump, Zeldin has led initiatives aimed at reducing the EPA’s workforce and limiting its regulatory powers, actions that have not sat well with many employees within the agency.
Just earlier this week, the EPA revealed a proposal to revoke its “endangerment finding,” a legal precedent that has allowed it to regulate greenhouse gas emissions since 2009.
This decision has sparked frustration and discontent among the employees who feel that the agency’s mission to combat climate change is being undermined.
Lilly Simmons, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) local 3428, representing around 400 employees in the New England region, expressed the sentiment prevalent among the staff.
“It’s really hard to keep a straight face when your boss is deregulating everything — you know, saying that climate change is a bad religion and saying that we can’t interact with our state partners,” she stated.
The reception of Zeldin’s visit has been lukewarm at best, with some employees being summoned for meetings while others were relieved to be left out.
According to an EPA employee who attended a meeting with Zeldin, the administrator aimed to eliminate what he referred to as the
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