"“This is a very baffling moment in time,” said one researcher. “I never would have thought we had to advocate for science.”"
"Despite losing an EPA research grant this May, Jane Clougherty feels relatively sanguine about her individual situation.
She’s not as optimistic about the future of EPA-funded research, though.
“I’m lucky enough to be tenured and secure in my position at the moment,” Clougherty, an environmental health scientist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said in an interview early this month. But as the Trump administration slashes funding for university-based inquiry, Clougherty said, “I think a lot of public health schools are going to be in a lot of trouble.”
Her project, which was examining the combined impact of extreme heat and air pollution on children’s health in New York state, was one among many axed midstream this spring on the grounds that they no longer meshed with administration priorities.
It’s part of the piecemeal dismemberment of EPA’s science initiatives that has only gathered steam.
Earlier this month, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has since confirmed plans to dissolve the agency’s Office of Research and Development, which last year had more than 1,500 employees and is described by supporters and former officials as an irreplaceable engine of innovation in fields like chemical safety and the risks posed by pollution exposure."
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