How Trump's EPA head has transformed the agency — and sided with polluters

Public media is no longer federally funded, but the NPR network remains yours in service to and powered by you. Keep public media public with a donation today at donate.npr.org and thank you. This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency are being chased out and departments drastically reduced

or eliminated. Efforts at the EPA to slow climate change and reduce pollution are constantly being decreased. The head of the EPA who is behind this change of direction is Lee Zeldan. President Trump has described him as our secret weapon. Zeldan isn't known for the kind of personal drama and big personality that some other members of the Trump administration are, but he's been very successful in carrying out the dramatic changes in Trump's agenda

to undo restrictions on companies that are polluters and on the chemicals in the air and water that harm our health and the environment. My guest Elizabeth Colbert is a Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental journalist and a staff writer for The New Yorker. Her article in the current issue is titled, Can the EPA survive Lee Zeldon? She's also the author of the bestseller The Sixth Extinction. Our interview was recorded yesterday.

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