First EPA chief warns against agency overhaul

William Ruckelshaus, the first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and a two-time Republican appointee to the position, is warning the new head of the EPA against deep cuts to the department’s programming and regulatory strategy. 

In a Tuesday New York Times op-ed, Ruckelshaus said the agency should aim to protect the public from pollution, and he predicted efforts to undermine that mission will not go over well with the public. 

“Are there changes that can be made to improve how the agency operates? Certainly,” wrote Ruckelshaus, who was appointed to lead the EPA under President Nixon, and whom President Reagan later asked to return to the agency amid administrative turmoil in the 1980s. 

{mosads}“But those changes can never be seen as undercutting or abandoning the EPA’s basic mission. That was the mistake made during the early Reagan years and why I was asked to return.”

Early actions from the Trump administration — and his selection of Scott Pruitt, a frequent legal opponent of the EPA, to lead the agency — have raised concerns among environmentalists about the future of the agency.

Already Trump has signed an executive order to roll back an EPA water regulation instituted under President Obama, and Pruitt has rescinded a request for information on gas-sector methane emissions.

Trump is expected to call for deep cuts to the agency’s spending, and he could sign another order to begin undoing a major carbon pollution regulation any day.

In his op-ed, Ruckelshaus said a “strong and credible regulatory regime is essential to the smooth functioning of our economy.” Spending cuts, he said, could hurt the agency’s ability to protect public health. 

“To me, the EPA represents one of the clearest examples of our political system listening and responding to the American people,” he wrote. 

“The public will tolerate changes that allow the agency to meet its mandated goals more efficiently and effectively. They will not tolerate changes that threaten their health or the precious environment.”