EPA Veterans Mobilize to Defend Agency's Work, Bracing for Trump Impact

"Former employees of the Environmental Protection Agency, who typically steer clear of politics, have begun advocating to support the work in Trump's crosshairs."

"Retired and former employees of the Environmental Protection Agency are banding together in rare activism to defend colleagues still working for the agency, as fears of deep layoffs, regulatory rollbacks and science suppression spread through the federal ranks.

Though organizing is still in its early stages, they're holding protest rallies, looking to nurture agency whistleblowers and pushing senators to vote against President Donald Trump's EPA administrator nominee, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Having vehement opponents of regulation and deniers of mainstream climate change science as president and administrator of the EPA propelled them into a type of activism most had never embraced, former EPA employees said.

"I've never experienced this kind of outcry in the past," John J. O'Grady, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238 in Chicago, said of the retirees' involvement."

Neela Banerjee reports for InsideClimate News February 15, 2017.