New rules limiting clean water protections ignore stream science

Sections of the Little Colorado River in northern Arizona are ephemeral, flowing most frequently during the spring to accommodate snowmelt runoff or during the summer monsoon season. In this view, the river is at flood stage, with water cascading over the falls. Dale Nations/Flickr CC What happens to part of a river network affects all of … Read more

Ignore the facts — only way to justify rollback of EPA’s greenhouse gas standards

Rows of vehicles in traffic spewing emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to massively roll back its undeniably successful car greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards while totally ignoring the technical and scientific facts, as well as its world-renowned federal, career staff. This is unprecedented and will go down as one of the most anti-science and anti-transparency actions in agency history. … Read more

Oil and Gas Fields Leak Far More Methane than EPA Reports

Oil well flaring gas

Higher than expected levels of the potent short-lived climate pollutant raise questions about whether natural gas can be an effective bridge to lower emissions. All of us should be concerned about how methane emissions from natural gas production, especially fracking, are negatively impacting our air quality. There has been much controversy for years over how … Read more

Turning EPA into a “Regulatory Capture” Agency

EPA employees holding signs "no budget or staffing cuts"

We are reposting a thoughtful – and alarming – article by a group of academics about the ways in which Scott Pruitt is mounting “an ongoing, broad-scale takeover of [EPA] by industries it regulates”  published today on The Environmental Protection Agency made news recently for excluding reporters from a “summit” meeting on chemical contamination in drinking water. … Read more

Ethics and Integrity at US EPA – and Administrator Scott Pruitt’s Violations of Norms

By  Kerrigan Clough, former Senior Ethics Officer, & Deputy Regional Administrator, EPA Region 8  & Joni Teter, former Deputy Ethics Officer & Senior Enforcement Attorney, EPA Region 8 William D. Ruckelshaus, EPA’s first and fourth Administrator set the standard for EPA employees’ ethical behavior.  Shortly after taking office on December 4, 1970, two days after … Read more

Save EPA – A new ‘toon is up in the adventures of Slick Scotty

And now a word from Slick Scotty’s sponsors…We welcome volunteers! Thank you for your interest in Save EPA.  As you’ve seen, we create tools & talking points to help you speak out in defense of our environmental protections.  The Trump Administration continues to launch a massive assault on our climate, our public health and our … Read more

Trump administration continues to threaten drinking water safety

Girl & water fountain

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is committed to repealing and replacing the Clean Water Rule with a weaker standard that would ultimately hurt the health of our waterways and our families.    “Trump’s EPA and their Republican allies in Congress are attacking the safeguards that keep our water clean.” FRED TANNEAU/AFP/Getty Images   From our colleagues at … Read more

Can EPA Maintain Its Mission?

Above: Los Angeles in the 1970s and now. What does it take to get from dirty to clean? Learn here. From our partners at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program Since Donald Trump became President and Scott Pruitt his EPA Administrator, the EPA has worked assiduously to remove, weaken, or delay a … Read more

State of Risk: How Weakening EPA Imperils Our Health, Families, Jobs & Economy

EPA was created to protect our air, water, lands –  and, above all, our health.  Since its creation in 1970, EPA has made our air and water cleaner, prevented millions of asthma attacks and hospitalizations, and avoided hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, all while America enjoyed a growing economy and expanding population.  Protecting the … Read more

Save EPA has been an all-volunteer group of former EPA officials who became alarmed about the Trump agenda for EPA and joined together to fight it.

With newly-elected President-Elect Biden and VP-Elect Harris coming in January, the need to "save EPA" is much less urgent. This is not to imply all clear skies ahead - there is much re-building to do, there will be negative pressures on the new administration, and we will likely have policy differences in the future. However, we are hopeful that these differences will be discussed rationally, using science as a basis for moving forward, and keeping EPA's mission of protecting human health and the environment in the forefront.

And so, we are going back to retirement!  We're keeping our website up at http://saveepaalums.info/ , as a resource for those who want to follow and influence the restoration work. Our report on the Trump record at EPA describes the actions that need to be reversed [saveepaalums.info/Trump+era+report], and our guide to participating in the rulemaking process [http://saveepaalums.info/Resistance+Guide] can help you be part of the solution.

Thank you for your support and commitment during the past 3.5 years.  While the Trump assaults were unending, they were also frequently unsuccessful, and that was due in large part to public outrage.  Keep it up!  Although EPA will be in much better hands with a Biden administration, there is always a need for an informed and engaged public.