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<a class="series-aside__link" href="https://grist.org/justice/the-epa-cut-back-enforcement-during-covid-these-researchers-are-assessing-the-damage/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist" >
The EPA cut back enforcement during COVID. These researchers are assessing the damage. </a>
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“There’s been no commitment to put the employees’ safety first,” said Nate James, president of AFGE Local 3331, which represents employees at the EPA’s headquarters. “That’s why I vote no confidence.”
An EPA spokesperson told Grist that the union’s critiques of agency leadership are “baseless allegations.”
“Reopening decisions are determined with the help of career EPA scientists and by examining guidance and orders of local and state officials. EPA has taken a number of measures and precautions to ensure a safer work environment that include giving workers flexibility to telework and cleaning work spaces,” EPA spokesperson James Hewitt wrote in an email.
This week’s developments are just the latest manifestation of long-running tensions between President Trump’s EPA leadership and the agency’s career staff. Longtime EPA staff left the agency in droves after Trump’s inauguration, and career scientists and lawyers within the EPA have fought to publicize data undermining the Trump administration’s frequent rollbacks of environmental rules.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Can the EPA reopen its offices safely? Its employees don’t think so. on Oct 9, 2020.