The EPA, meanwhile, was ordered to cease all grant and contract awards, press, and other operations, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.
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It’s the first full week of President Trump’s administration and attacks on science are already underway.
“Trump’s war on the environment, the climate, and clean water protections is a war on all of us”.
That exchange shows Nancy Grantham with the agency’s public affairs office telling others inside the agency that the agency is continuing to award what she called environmental program grants, and grants to state revolving loan funds.
“Both the EPA and the USDA have developed scientific integrity policies that, among other things, protect scientists’ right to speak out about their work”.
“All of our worst fears about the Trump presidency are being confirmed this week”.
Trump’s nominee to head the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has expressed doubts humans are behind climate change and is against environmental regulations that hurt economic development. That means there are not yet the new senior personnel in place to make key decisions.
Then, as Reuters reports, the administration asked the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website.
The freeze on the EPA grants is apparently only temporary.
One EPA employee aware of the freeze said he had never seen anything like it in almost a decade with the agency.
“Certainly the ban on any sort of communication is a huge concern”, he said.
An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spokesman said the Trump administration is not now planning to take down website content regarding climate change. He said aides were looking into the circumstances.
Incoming media requests will be carefully screened.
“We’re just trying to get a handle on everything and make sure what goes out reflects the priorities of the new administration”, Ericksen said. In fact, as Mashable points out, the gag order goes against the agencies’ own ethics policies, which encourage employees to promote scientific standards and communicate with the public about their research. It bans employees from issuing press releases, sharing information on agency social media, blogging, putting new information on the agency website, or sending messages on agency listservs, because those messages might leak to the public.
Employees of The Agricultural Research Service, the research wing of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, received a memo outlining a similar hold on communication outside the agency.
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Censoring such an important agency is not something to be taken lightly, and needless to say, scientists are not thrilled by this move.
