In the News

John Kennedy is an EPN member and EPA retiree. He spent more than 30 years at the EPA developing systems to protect clean air and mitigate toxic contamination–systems he now relies heavily upon due to his advanced lung disease. This is his op-ed in USA Today.

EPN member and budget analyst David Coursen, who worked in the EPA Office of General Council for 20 years, is quoted on the administration’s attempt to downsize the agency in this article reporting on EPN’s analysis of the proposed EPA budget for FY2019.

This report talks about EPN’s analysis of the fiscal 2019 budget, which would leave the EPA with a greatly diminished workforce, cut 48% of science funding, and leave essential programs for clear air, water, and land at risk.

EPN member Chet France, quoted in this article on super-polluting glider trucks, is former director of assessment and standards at the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality.

Nick DiPasquale, retired head of the Chesapeake Bay Program in Annapolis, and Rich Kuhlman, who spent 30 years working on grants at the EPA, are both current EPN members and are quoted in this story about the Bay Journal’s loss of EPA grant funding, a possible violation of its First Amendment rights.

EPN members Cynthia Giles, who led the the EPA’s enforcement office during the Obama administration, and Janet McCabe, who headed the agency’s clean air efforts under Obama, are quoted in this article on the Trump administration’s unrelenting push to dilute and repeal clean air and water policies.

EPN members Betsy Southerland, Mustafa Santiago Ali, Brendan Doyle, and Lynda Deschambault share stories about EPA work under Trump and what pushed them to leave.

EPN member D. James Baker was the longest serving Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1993-2001) and worked closely with the EPA on ocean and coastal protection. This is his article on the United State’s forward movement on climate change despite the Trump administration’s work against it.

Bob Sussman was Senior Policy Counsel to the EPA Administrator during the Obama Administration and is a member of EPN. This is his article on the unprecedented threat to the EPA’s effectiveness and survival brought on by the Trump Administration and Administrator Pruitt.

EPN member Cheryl Wasserman served for 43 years in senior positions in the EPA’s policy and enforcement offices. This is her article about the threat EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt poses to environmental enforcement.

EPN member Bill Painter spent 27 years at the EPA as a scientist. In this Correspondent of the Day piece, he presents scientific facts supporting climate change in response to Tom Eaton’s claim that progressives profit from climate change.

EPN member Kathy Setian, who was a project manager at the EPA and is a delegate from IFPTE Local 20, is interviewed by WorkWeek Radio as they examine the growing crisis at the EPA and the need to have labor united to defend our air, water, and environment.

Former EPA public affairs official, Bonnie Bellow, and Carol Campbell, a former EPA regional administrator, are EPN members quoted in this article about the methods Pruitt’s EPA uses to deal with bad press: openly fighting with reporters and hiring political operatives to monitor the news.

EPN members Robert Kavlock and Lynda Deschambault are quoted in this article about the huge loss of scientists and environmental protection specialists at the EPA under Trump’s administration due to poor morale and a sense of grievance at the agency.

EPN members Rob Kavlock, Ronnie Levin and Lynda Deshaumbault are quoted in this article which examines deteriorating morale at the EPA under Pruitt.

EPN member Margo Oge served as director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the EPA. This is her piece on Administrator Scott Pruitt’s decision to roll back the regulations on glider kit trucks, despite health risks documented by his own engineers.

Lynda Deschambault, EPN member and former remediation project manager at the Leviathan Superfund site in California, is quoted in this piece on Pruitt’s move toward “lean” methods to accelerate cleanup at Superfund sites.

EPN member George Wyeth, a career EPA attorney who retired in 2017, is quoted in this article on Pruitt’s turn to “lean manufacturing” to revamp processes at the EPA and speed up regulatory approvals.

EPN member Betsy Southerland spent three decades as a career staffer in the EPA’s Office of Water before retiring under the Trump administration. She is quoted in this article about what it is like behind the scenes at the EPA during regulatory rollbacks, where the agency is now shutting out its own staff in the decision-making process.

EPN member Dan Reich retired in April 2017, after a career which included serving as a U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division Trial Attorney and an Assistant Regional Counsel at EPA Region 9 in San Francisco. This is his piece on what is really at stake for American families in the wake of the Trump administration’s budget cuts to enforcement.

EPN member Cynthia Giles, the former assistant administrator for the EPA’s enforcement office during the Obama administration, is quoted in this New York Times article about Pruitt’s lenient approach toward polluters.

EPN members Carol Campbell and David Coursen are quoted in this article about President Trump’s sweeping 2018 budget cut proposal for the EPA. The Boulder Weekly also cites EPN analysis on workforce reductions resulting from the proposed FY2018 budget.

Interviewed by KJZZ in Phoenix, Ruth Greenspan Bell is a public policy scholar, former federal employee who managed EPA lawyers, and a founding member of EPN. Here she talks about Administrator Pruitt’s shakeup of the EPA by moving away from science and many of the core EPA values.

Trish Koman, a former EPA scientist; Betsy Southerland, former director of science and technology at the Office of Water; and Mike Cox, a former EPA scientist who focused on water protection and greenhouse gas reductions, are current EPN members and are quoted in this article, which provides a behind-the-scenes perspective of the less-than-transparent Pruitt EPA.