When he was last president, Trump gutted more than 100 environmental rules and vowed to only leave a "little bit of the EPA" left "because you can't destroy business", prompting hundreds of agency staff to leave amid a firestorm of political interference and retaliation against civil servants. An even greater exodus is expected this time, with staff fearing they are frontline targets in what could be the biggest upheaval in the agency's 50-year history.
"People are anxious and apprehensive, [and] we are preparing for the worst," said Nicole Cantello, an EPA water specialist and president of the AFGE Local 704 union, representing agency staff in the midwest.
"We've had a taste of what will happen and how we were targeted last time," she said. "By the emails and texts I'm getting, a lot of people will leave. So many things could be thrown at us that it could destroy the EPA as we know it."
Denne historien er fra November 12, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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Denne historien er fra November 12, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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US politics Rivalries break out ahead of inauguration
Internal rivalries in Donald Trump's team have spilled into public view with Boris Epshteyn, a top adviser to Trump, being accused of asking potential administration nominees to pay fees in exchange for promoting them to the president-elect.
Canada Trudeau calls emergency talks to discuss threat to exports
Justin Trudeau has called an emergency meeting with provincial premiers across Canada after the US president-elect, Donald Trump, threatened a 25% tariff on imports from the United States' northern neighbour and largest trading partner.
Warnings of trade war after Trump's tariff threat against China, Canada and Mexico
Donald Trump's threat to impose steep tariffs on goods imported into the US has sparked warnings of a bitter global trade war and drawn sharp responses from Canada, China and Mexico, with the latter threatening retaliatory tariffs.
Ruling on definition of 'women' challenged in Scotland
The supreme court has been urged to uphold \"the facts of biological reality rather than the fantasies of legal fiction\" in a case brought by Scottish campaigners about how women are defined in law.
TfL to fine firms whose ebikes block pavements in London
Dockless ebike companies will be fined when their cycles block roads and spaces outside underground stations under a crackdown by Transport for London.
Police accused of forcing Gypsy children to leave city on trains
Representatives from Gypsy and Traveller communities have said that they want \"accountability not apologies\" after children attending the Christmas markets in Manchester were \"forced on to trains\" by police.
Mother killed herself but wrote 'I was murdered', court hears
A young mother killed herself and left a note saying \"I was murdered\" after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, a court heard yesterday.
Five survivors found a day after tourist boat sank in the Red Sea
Egyptian naval forces recovered four bodies and rescued five more people from the Red Sea a day after a large tourist boat sank in rough waters, officials have said.
Manager and seven staff at backpacker hostel held over tourist deaths
Police in Laos have detained the manager and seven staff of a backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng following the deaths of six tourists from a suspected mass methanol poisoning.
McQueen chronicles century of protest as portrait of Britain
After retelling the story of the Blitz from a new angle, Steve McQueen's next project is an alternative photographic history of protest and campaigning in Britain, spanning a century from the Suffragettes to the Iraq war protests.
