White House Administration to terminate 40 EPA Experts appointed by Donald Trump

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The White House administration will terminate a number of Trump-appointed experts appointed to the EPA (Environment Protection Agency). On Wednesday, the administration announced that EPA is working to reconfigure its panels. The agency’s administrator Michael Regan would remove at least 40 experts. They were appointed on the EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) during the Trump administration. Point to be noted that it is unusual for an administration to entirely terminate members from a panel who were appointed by the previous administration. But, President Joe Biden has indicated he would approach environmental policies like air pollution and fracking differently than his predecessor. Regan issued a statement and said, “Scientific integrity is one of EPA’s foundational values”.

Regan added, “And as Administrator, I am committed to ensuring that every decision we make meets rigorous scientific standards. Resetting these two scientific advisory committees will ensure the agency receives the best possible scientific insight to support our work to protect human health and the environment. Today we return to a time-tested, fair, and transparent process for soliciting membership to these critically important advisory bodies”. It is noteworthy that terminated experts would be able to apply for their current role if they wished to remain on one of the EPA panels they served. But, they would be competing against other candidates. Regan would make the final selection of experts.

The recent move came as the EPA was working to reverse several policies made under President Donald Trump, including a directive that prevented academics who received EPA research grants from serving on advisory committees. The EPA has also boasted its commitment to science-based decisions and it re-launched a webpage on its website dedicated to the climate crisis after the Trump administration previously removed it in 2017. Some other changes under the Biden administration include the president launching a task force that would look into political interference into scientific decisions under Trump to ensure federal government policies related to science were free of any political influence.