Trump's radical plan to root out top government scientists who believe in climate change

More than 1,000 EPA employees, including scientists involved in climate change research and policy, have been put on immediate notice by the Trump administration. Prior to taking office, President Donald Trump promised to bulldoze many environmental policies that he said were wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars and would instead open up protected lands to oil and gas drilling to boost the economy.

The New York Times reported that the Trump Administration notified more than 1,100 EPA employees that they could be dismissed 'immediately' at any time. Many of those put on notice are scientists and experts who oversee research and enforce policies involved in air pollution, hazardous waste cleanup and environmental emergency response. Members of two highly influential EPA advisory committees tasked with providing scientific guidance to the head of the agency were already ousted in January.

In addition to these staffing changes, the Trump administration has started removing or burying any mentions of climate change across US government websites. The main climate change section on the Department of State's website has vanished, as has the climate change page on the White House's website. Similar changes have been made to the websites of the Department of Defense, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Transportation.

President Donald Trump's radical plan to root out top government scientists who believe in climate change has been set in motion. 'We should plan for the worst,' Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Guardian. 'The keys to the car have been given to the polluters and fossil fuel plutocrats and they intend to drive it off the climate cliff.'. The two EPA advisory committees that suffered staff cuts were the Science Advisory Board (SAB) and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).

The SAB is a group of independent scientists that provides the agency with guidance and expertise to make sure all EPA regulations are science-driven. The CASAC is similar, but this group of sciences advises the agency specifically on issues of air quality to provide a technical bases for the EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standards. During his first weeks in office, President Trump began dismantling the EPA by gutting its workforce and stocking the agency with former lawyers and lobbyists for the oil and chemical industries.

Now, two sources familiar with the matter have told the New York Times that the dismissed staff would be replaced with political appointees and it should take effect this week. EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said in a statement: 'As is common practice and has become more prevalent across administrations, EPA updated its organizational structure to match other federal agencies.'. The terminations would include scientists and experts who oversee research, enforcement of pollution laws and hazardous waste cleanup, as well as the agency's human resources department.

David Uhlmann, who led EPA enforcement under the Biden administration, said that 'when viewed alongside everything else taking place, [the changes] are yet another unfortunate attack on public servants who have dedicated their careers to public health and environmental protection.'. Indeed, experts say these decisions should strengthen the Trump administration's influence over aspects of the agency that were previously overseen by nonpartisan experts who served on both sides of the aisle.

In addition, they should make it easier for his administration to bypass Congress. That's because people in charge of these areas normally need Senate approval, but Trump's new appointees could take on leadership roles without that. EPA employees who have been at the agency for less than one year received an email Wednesday stating they were likely on a 'probationary/ trial period,' according to an email reviewed by NBC News.

'As a probationary/ trial period employee, the agency has the right to immediately terminate you,' the email reads. 'The process for probationary removal is that you receive a notice of termination, and your employment is ended immediately.'. The EPA’s website shows that it employs more than 15,000 people. Those who are not terminated could face demotion. Before the Trump administration, long-time EPA employees held the agency's second-in-command positions for each office, called 'principal deputy assistant administrators' (PDAA).

Each PDAA has different responsibilities depending on which office they lead. In general, they manage support functions for the agency such as human resources, grants and facility operations. Additionally, In the event that their the head of their office — a Senate-confirmed assistant administrator — is absent, the PDAA takes their place as the acting head. Newly appointed Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin speaks at an East Palestine, Ohio Fire Station on Feb 3, 2025, flanked by Vice President JD Vance (right).