For many scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the past four years working in President Donald Trump’s government have felt like an eternity. Largely sidelined, they could only watch as his administration dismantled science advisory panels, disregarded scientific evidence and weakened pollution regulations. Expectations are high that the next four years will see improvements under incoming president Joe Biden — and there are clear and positive steps he can take, according to more than a dozen current and former EPA scientists interviewed by Nature. But these insiders also say that Biden will have his work cut out in repairing the damage, including restoring the role of science — and scientists — in crafting environmental rules to protect public health. They point to changes the Trump administration made that have undermined expert advice and scientific data, and that will take time to undo. “We are not naive,” says one mid-career scientist currently at the EPA who, like other insiders in this story, declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the press. “It’s going to take time.” Multiple sources told Nature that EPA leadership ignored complaints filed by staff that claimed that senior political appointees had violated the agency’s scientific-integrity policy. The EPA declined to comment on the allegations. EPA scientists have been in Trump’s cross hairs ever since his run for president in 2016, when he promised to slash budgets and jobs at the agency, arguing that environmental regulations were costing jobs and “making it impossible for our country to compete”. Just weeks after entering the White House, his administration proposed cutting the EPA’s budget by nearly one-third and laying off more than 20% of its 15,000 staff members. Trump targeted no other major US agency to the same extent. A seat at the table Ultimately, the US Congress rejected those cuts, but the administration continued its overhaul of the EPA over the next four years. Many senior EPA staff left, and the atmosphere dampened considerably, insiders say. “There's been an enormous loss of trust; people are exceptionally edgy, and they’re not going to bounce back quickly,” says one senior EPA scientist. “Biden has a lot of terrific policies he wants to carry out, but the first job will be to bring the agency back to health.” The first step Biden can take is to appoint a new agency head, and EPA observers expect a science-minded individual to be put in place. “I’m sure whoever the Biden administration appoints will be someone who embraces science and recognizes that EPA is a science-based regulatory agency,” says Chris Frey, an environmental engineer at North Carolina State University in Raleigh who served on an EPA advisory panel that was disbanded by the Trump administration in 2018. By contrast, Trump’s appointees, starting with Scott Pruitt and continuing under Andrew Wheeler, sidelined career scientists at the agency while implementing an industry-friendly agenda. But one of the most important things Biden can do to boost morale among scientists, insiders say, is to quickly nominate a leader for the agency’s main science arm, the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The division houses more than 1,000 scientists and engineers who assess scientific data and conduct research that feeds into regulatory decisions, but it has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since 2012. Although former president Barack Obama nominated a leader for ORD in 2013, Senate Republicans blocked the nominee’s confirmation, leaving the division in the hands of acting or deputy assistant administrators; Trump never nominated anyone for the post. https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8172 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8174 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8176 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8177 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8179 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8180 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8181 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8182 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8183 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8184 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8185 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8186 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8187 https://unworldoceansday.org/user/8188 https://onlinegdb.com/r105faonD https://paiza.io/projects/ywfmhnb_2vDfblfkI-lTUw?language=php https://steemkr.com/trumphnews/@cucucahyati/trump-absent-as-biden-pence-plan-to-get-vaccinated https://webhitlist.com/forum/topics/watch-president-elect-joe-biden-addresses-nation-after-electoral https://caribbeanfever.com/photo/albums/biden-s-victory-cemented-as-states-reach-key-electoral-college This vacancy has diminished the influence of the scientists in ORD, says Bob Kavlock, who served as acting head of ORD before retiring in 2017. “It sends a signal when you have somebody who is confirmed by the Senate — they have much more influence,” he says. “It puts them at the table with all of the regulatory folks.”