EPA Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Labor Day heroes who aren’t even working

climate.us

I’ve come to honor Labor Day heroes who aren’t even working for pay.

ITEM 1: Fired Federal Employees Are Bringing Climate Change Info Back to the People. Scientists are preserving vital climate-related information amid the regime’s attacks on climate science.

“Since June 23, a group of former employees of the communications branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been busily resurrecting one of the government’s premier educational websites on climate change.

“Climate.gov was started in the early 2010s by communicators with NOAA, and for more than a decade it consistently produced high-quality graphics and other charts documenting rising global temperatures, changing rain patterns, drought conditions, El Niño impacts, and other climate-related data….

“In February 2025, as the so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) purges accelerated, most of the staff and contractors attached to the website were fired…

Let me interrupt this with something I did not fully know:

ITEM 2: DOGE officially shuts down on July 4, 2026!

“But the initiative did not come without a cost to taxpayers. In December 2025, the executive director of the environmental nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) claimed the [regime] cost taxpayers an estimated $10 billion in 2025 through its deferred resignation program.

“Ironically, this unreasonably costly mass idling of civil servants was done in the name of ‘government efficiency.’

Back to our main story:

“A year after Climate.gov’s demise, [former employees] resurrected the vast majority of its materials…The new, privately run site is Climate.us, and it contains a wealth of sophisticated data sets and graphics on the world’s climate…”

Their work has inspired ex-government employees in several other agencies.

Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) communicators are… now looking to resurrect climate-related EPA pages that have been taken down; a group called the Public Environmental Data Partners is attempting to rescue specialist environmental monitoring tools — it has some information online, but not yet a fully interactive website. Another group, the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, is working to save specialized environmental justice screening tools. As the [regime] deliberately shreds decades of climate-related research, ex-government employees are attempting to ride to the rescue by creating a sort of shadow information-dispersal system. The American Geophysical Union, which most U.S. Earth scientists are members of, has been instrumental in putting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change back on track after the Trump administration pulled support for its annual reports….

Replacement

The Climate.us site now is seeing close to a million visitors a month, putting it up there with where the NOAA-run site was before its demise. Teachers use it frequently, as do an array of others simply trying to get an accurate read on what is happening to the climate.

As with the old government-run website, Climate.us has a network of scientific advisers around the country willing to lend their expertise to the project and to make sure that what the communications people write up is scientifically accurate.

Preserving “this vital climate-related information in an era of administration-enforced environmental ignorance has become a mission. ‘Climate information shouldn’t be available to the public just on a political basis or a whim.’ There ought to be a way to ‘promote public climate literacy and to equip people to turn knowledge into meaningful conversations and climate-conscious actions.'”

I shared this news with a former dedicated employee of one of the agencies mentioned, and they were thrilled and heartened that the work they had participated in could be preserved.

“SO glad to see this! It reminds me of how people hurriedly photocopied files that Anne Gorsuch wanted destroyed under ray-gun. I knew some of them.” Not incidentally, Anne Gorsuch was the mother of current SCOTUS justice Neil Gorsuch.

They mentioned the Wayback Machine; unfortunately, I have found that route to climate.gov unsuccessful.

These unpaid workers are heroes, in my book. So on Labor Day, let me salute those who are doing the work to undo ignorance.

Earth Day 2026 is depressing

exemption from Clean Air Act

I can’t be the only one who believes Earth Day 2026 is depressing. This year alone, the regime has repealed the 2009 endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, eliminating the foundation of much of U.S. climate policy.

The LA Times noted: “The decision reverses decades of environmental progress despite overwhelming scientific evidence and opposition from health experts, environmental groups, 50 cities and 17 states. Experts warn the repeal will increase pollution, respiratory disease, and planet-warming emissions over the coming decades…

“The repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding — a conclusion based on decades of science that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare — represents one of the biggest environmental rollbacks in U.S. history, and the latest in a series of actions by [FOTUS] to scrap policies and regulations designed to curb the use of fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

“The administration… also dismantled all federal emissions regulations governing vehicle models and engines between 2012 and 2027 and beyond.”

Profit over people

Daily Kos: FOTUS is forcing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to abandon its legal obligation to protect human health and the environment – by granting more than one-third of the nearly 550 polluting facilities nationwide a two-year exemption from Clean Air Act rules, allowing dangerous air pollution to go unchecked.

“The Clean Air Act exists to protect people from harmful pollutants—such as ethylene oxide, mercury, and lead—known to cause cancer and other serious health harms. But instead of enforcing the law, Trump is siding with corporate polluters and putting our communities at risk.

“So far, 188 exemptions have already been granted to coal power plants, chemical manufacturers, commercial sterilizers, and other polluters. Another 366 are eligible for the same two-year exemption.

We don’t need no stinkin’ research

MoveOn: As we mark Earth Month this April, the [regime] is quietly making yet another catastrophic attack on our environment.

“The U.S. Forest Service, housed under the Department of Agriculture (USDA), has announced plans to shutter a staggering 57 of its 77 research facilities across 31 states—that’s almost 75%.¹ These are the labs and scientists tracking how wildfires spread, how droughts are deepening, and how the climate crisis is reshaping 193 million acres of American forests and grasslands.

“This is all part of a deliberate, sweeping attack on climate science through defunding research, silencing scientists, and prioritizing corporate interests over the health of our public lands.”

Thus, last month was the hottest March on record for the continental U.S., federal data shows.”

Here are the Executive Orders on energy and the environment, 2025-2026. They include “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry,” and a bunch of other groanworthy titles .

At a point where the US should do more to try a Project Hail Mary to slow the impending ecological chaos, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and others are actively working to make things worse.

Happy Earth Day.

Sometimes I weep

measles, ICE detention

When I read stories about preventable chaos in the US, I sometimes feel enraged. But sometimes I weep.

As I read that the regime has, per the LA Times [paywall likely], “reversed the U.S. government’s longstanding scientific conclusion that planet-heating pollution seriously threatens Americans, erasing a foundational piece of the country’s efforts to address climate change,” I fret, What kind of country are we leaving my daughter? I cry a bit.

ICE detention

Democracy Now highlights “The Children of Dilley.” “That’s the title of a new ProPublica investigation into the South Texas Family Residential Center, a sprawling ICE detention complex in the town of Dilley, a few dozen miles from the southern border with Mexico. It’s run by the private prison company CoreCivic. Dilley was first opened by the Obama administration in 2014.”

It’s a place “where families describe horrific conditions inside, such as being served contaminated food, with children and parents at times finding worms in their meals. Lights are reportedly left on for 24 hours a day. [It] detains an estimated 3,500 people, more than half of them children.

“There are also mounting reports of psychological abuse by guards, some of whom have allegedly threatened families with separation. ‘Many of the children who are now being sent there are being arrested by ICE around the country, and some of them, like Ariana, have been living [in the U.S.] for years,’ says Mica Rosenberg, investigative reporter at ProPublica.”

Sadism makes me weep.

Measles

What REALLY did me in, though, was a story in The Atlantic. I don’t currently have a subscription, but there is a feature called “One Story to Read Today” that “highlights a single newly published—or newly relevant—Atlantic story that’s worth your time.”

The title was This Is How A Child Dies Of Measles by Elizabeth Bruenig. From the excerpt: “You don’t want to worry your daughter, so you try to sound calm when you call the pediatrician and describe her symptoms at a rapid clip. The receptionist responds gently, types swiftly, and then pauses. Are your children vaccinated? she asks. Her tone is flat and inscrutable, but you detect an undercurrent of judgment. You wince and tell her the truth. No, you say, no vaccines. She puts you on hold.

“While you wait, you take your son out of his high chair and wipe his runny nose with his bib. The receptionist is back. She asks if you can be at the office within the hour. In an even, professional voice, she gives you a number to call as soon as you arrive, but tells you to stay in your car. The doctor, she says, will come to you.”

And then

“You’re there in 30 minutes, unshowered and wearing sweatpants, with your daughter bundled up and shivering in her pajamas and your son fussing in his car seat. You call the office. From the car, you cannot see the sign on the pediatrician’s office door instructing patients with a list of symptoms, like your daughter’s, not to come inside. Flashes of the pandemic play back as you see the pediatrician and two nurses approaching in the rearview mirror wearing N95 masks. It hits you: This is not the flu. This is not chicken pox. This is serious.”

If that isn’t gutting enough to make me weep, there’s a twist.

This is exhausting, enervating stuff.

Donate to UREC now

The Interpretive Center

I received the April 2025 monthly e-blast from the Underground Railroad Education Center in Albany, an entity I have supported financially. It was uncharacteristically dire. The message said, “Thank you for your support! Please share.” So I shared.

Donate to UREC now while you still can. Write to your Legislators

ITEM: The Museum Studies Teen Program is designed to prepare high school students to seek employment in the museum field. The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funding, an open grant supporting Lacey Wilson’s Project Director position for the Museum Studies Teen Program, has been negatively impacted. On 3/31/25, IMLS was forced to place 85% of its staff on administrative leave and cancel all open grants.

(Not incidentally, the IMLS may be affecting the New York State Library, and museums and libraries across the United States.)

ITEM: UREC is in the process of building an Interpretive Center. However, funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been imperiled.

The NEH, which awarded the Interpretive Center a $250,000 grant, has been negatively impacted. NEH had 80% of its staff put on indefinite administrative leave, and all open grants were canceled.

The EPA, which awarded UREC $3.6 million toward the Interpretive Center as part of an 8-group collaborative that received an award of $20,000,000, has had its funds frozen.

Write!

Use this link – https://www.congressweb.com/aam/94 – to send your comments to your elected officials. The template letter provided at this link needs personalization. Here is a suggested text for your use – – – – –

The Underground Railroad Education Center receives funding from IMLS to support the planning and implementation of a Museum Studies Teen Program, which is designed to prepare high school students to seek employment in the museum field. This program introduces students to the vast array of job possibilities within the museum field and the value of museums to the health, well-being, and financial sustainability of our communities. As a workforce development program, it will support the development of “hard skills” relevant to specific jobs in the museum field and “soft skills” such as a strong work ethic and positive attitude, which are crucial for success in any workplace.

Likewise, the Underground Railroad Education Center has an open grant with NEH for $250,000 to support the building of a community center highlighting community history and culture. This center will provide jobs for community residents, transform educational experiences, and attract thousands of visitors. IMLS and the NEH must honor their commitments to support the life-changing educational programming offered by the Underground Railroad Education Center.

IMLS and the NEH must honor their commitments to support the Underground Railroad Education Center’s life-changing educational programming.

Earth Day: the EPA is all but dead

…an increasing sense that their overseers are deeply partisan and ignorant of the issues

The fight to save the EPA – “With environmental regulations under attack and EPA budgets being slashed, can the destruction of the agency be prevented?” As a practical matter, no.

Last year, Fortune did a story about the US before EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency was created under Republican President Richard Nixon in December 1970, months after the first Earth Day.

Under this regime, however, data has been buried, altered, silenced. “Across agency websites [not just EPA’s], documents have disappeared, web pages have vanished and language has shifted in ways that appear to reflect the policies of the new administration.” I am told that staff have been directed to change the titles of some reports so nobody could find them or ask for the correct document, an underhanded ploy to render them un-FOIA-able.

The agency is poised to scrap fuel economy targets that are key to curbing global warming. “The EPA is [stupidly] expected to announce… that it will scrap mileage targets the Obama administration drafted in tandem with California that aim to boost average fuel economy for passenger cars and SUVs… undermining one of the world’s most aggressive programs to confront climate change.”

Most sinister, and somewhat complicated to explain, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is using ‘weaponized transparency’ to destroy public health and block the use of science.

“How could ‘more transparency’ actually mean less information and worse decisions? Many of the studies that the EPA and other agencies [conduct] that address the health and safety of Americans depend on [and] require access to health records. Those health records can be used only if the information is kept carefully anonymous and if some parts of the information are shielded from public scrutiny. Many of these studies include agreements that portions of the data will not be released to the public. Otherwise, these studies risk revealing private information about the health and activities of individuals.

“Under the new proposed guidelines, many of these studies would be either forced to violate privacy rules, or their data could not be used. By filtering this information out, Pruitt hopes to make EPA decisions without being confronted with information that would counter his desire to allow companies to release unlimited toxins.”

So why are Scott Pruitt and other Cabinet-level heads creating a work environment in which employees at agencies say they have seen their core missions changed or even demolished overnight? Some “described living in constant fear that… budget proposals would end in them being laid off en masse. And given the constantly mercurial state of … policies changing at the drop of a hat, leadership hired and fired on a whim, political appointees undermining existing management, and an increasing sense that their overseers are deeply partisan and ignorant of the issues—their workplace environment has reportedly grown worse than toxic.”

It’s because Scott Pruitt says he’s doing God’s work by ignoring climate change and repealing Clean Power Act. Or just maybe it’s that Pruitt has been living in an energy lobbyist’s condo since he moved to D.C. The current challenges to his tenure brings me little comfort, considering the damage already done.

In any case, the United States pulling out of the Paris Accord while the Arctic is melting down and the Antarctic food chain is breaking seems counter-intuitive. Stop blaming ‘both sides’ for America’s climate failures.

We’re going to have to rely on other countries, the states, business, non-governmental organizations, and ourselves to carry on the fight because the current EPA appears to be fighting for environmental perfidy.

Note: similar topic, more optimism in a couple days.