Dismantling the EPA: Big Regulatory Rollbacks and Lowest Staff Levels Since 1980s
Looking at how the EPA has changed under the Trump administration and how businesses are seeing climate change affect their bottom line.
This past Tuesday, four former EPA administrators testified before Congress and said that they’re afraid for the public’s health as the Trump administration continues to deregulate longtime environmental policies and roll back the agency’s research on climate change. The staff levels are the lowest they’ve been since the 1980s–an era that saw a significant uptick in regulations passed around environmental protections. The current administration continues to deny climate change and seems unwilling to acknowledge humanity’s role in the rapid deterioration of our planet. All of that leaves us with some big questions about where we go from here and what the future will look like if things continue down this path.
To kick off the conversation, Stephen is joined by Betsy Southerland, former director of the EPA Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water. After that, Stephen looks at how big businesses are seeing climate change affect their bottom lines in the next five years. He talks about that with Dan Reich, former assistant regional counsel with the EPA’s Region 9. Plus, a local look at what Oakland County is doing to update its infrastructure to keep up with flooding that seems to be becoming increasingly common. Jim Nash, the county’s water resources commissioner, weighs in on that discussion.
Click on the audio player to hear the full conversation.
