Environmental Safety Company staff took to the streets throughout the US as we speak to protest drastic cuts President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE have made on the federal company whose mission is to “shield human well being and the surroundings.”
Musk, the face of DOGE and the goal of rising protests at Tesla dealerships, was an even bigger identify on the rally than Trump. “How do you spell corruption? E-L-O-N” staff and their supporters chanted at a picket line in entrance of a federal constructing in New York Metropolis. Some held indicators with “this man is just not our boss” written in purple over a sketch of Musk’s face. Greater than 150 individuals rallied with picket indicators chanting “Transfer, DOGE, get out the way in which,” to the tune of a Ludacris song, and “What can we do when clear land/air/water/science is underneath assault? Get up, struggle again!”
The employees, represented by union AFGE Council 238, held marches in 8 cities as a part of a ‘Nationwide Day of Motion.’ Plans to dismantle a lot of the company and weaken protections towards air pollution put People in danger, EPA staff warn.
“I work on implementing laws that cope with hazardous waste and poisonous substances, which is figure that I really feel is just not a partisan problem.”
“I work on implementing laws that cope with hazardous waste and poisonous substances, which is figure that I really feel is just not a partisan problem,” says Suzanne Englot, an lawyer who works in enforcement on the EPA. “Everybody needs to be sure that hazardous waste and poisonous substances are correctly regulated, disposed of, saved and all of that. However in these occasions, it makes me nervous that issues are going to alter.”
The EPA, underneath Trump’s govt orders, is now barred from taking any enforcement or compliance actions that might “shut down any stage of vitality manufacturing” except there’s an “imminent and substantial” well being risk, based on a memo that EPA leadership issued on March 12th.
On the identical day, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin introduced what he called “the best day of deregulation our nation has seen,” proposing rollbacks on dozens of guidelines meant to curb air pollution from energy vegetation, oil and fuel refineries, chemical vegetation, automobiles and vehicles, factories, and extra.
The Trump administration has additionally moved to shutter the company’s scientific research office and environmental justice offices. Trump has mused about cutting the EPA’s budget by 65 percent. Round 1,100 probationary workers on the EPA obtained discover in January telling them the company “has the suitable to right away terminate you.” A federal decide later ordered the Trump administration to rehire hundreds of workers who had been laid off on the company. And the White Home faces extra authorized challenges over its dismantling of federal businesses and deregulation spree.
Each Trump and billionaire-backer Musk complained about laws slowing corporations down throughout final 12 months’s election season. “It prices rather more to do issues environmentally clear,” Trump mentioned in an interview with Joe Rogan on October twenty fifth.
“We’ve received to have smart spending. And we’ve received to have deregulation …. I’m pro-environment, [but] I don’t suppose we must always vilify the oil and fuel trade as a result of they’re conserving civilization going proper now,” Musk mentioned in his X interview with Trump on August 12th. Musk later wielded a chainsaw “for forms” on the Conservative Political Motion Convention stage final month.
“Elon is perpetuating a local weather of worry and concentrating on federal staff and the mission that they perform to guard human well being and the surroundings,” EPA environmental engineer Harper Stanfield informed The Verge on the rally in New York Metropolis. “We will’t let EPA be silenced by billionaires.”
Trump has accepted tens of millions of dollars in funding from the oil and fuel trade. Elon Musk spent greater than $250 million helping Trump get elected. The president then handed Musk the facility to dramatically makeover federal businesses by means of his publish main the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE).
In an e-mail to The Verge, the EPA mentioned that it’s “listening” to workers and made cuts to adjust to Trump’s agenda to eradicate packages it considers range, fairness, and inclusion initiatives.
Stanfield and Englot mentioned on the rally as we speak that they’re calling on Congress to behave as a verify on the manager department, and asking individuals to succeed in out to their elected representatives to help the EPA’s work.
“Democrat, Republican, impartial, whoever it’s, everyone seems to be impacted by this,” Englot says. “EPA’s work touches everybody’s lives.”