EPA alumni attack Project 2025’s ‘forever chemicals’ plans

By Miranda Willson | 09/24/2024 04:09 PM EDT

Their latest critical article decries plans to stop or delay efforts to control and tackle PFAS pollution.

A woman holds a Project 2025 fan in the group's tent at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa.

A woman holds a Project 2025 fan in the group's tent at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. Charlie Neibergall/AP

Former EPA officials are sounding the alarm again about Project 2025’s conservative vision for the agency, this time with a focus on plans to stop or delay efforts to control and tackle pollution from “forever chemicals.”

Scientists, political appointees and longtime regulators who worked at the agency will be writing a series of articles in the coming weeks about the Heritage Foundation-led plan. The articles are being led by the Environmental Protection Network, a group of more than 650 former EPA officials who worked under Democratic and Republican administrations.

The latest critical piece, released Tuesday, follows another report geared to air quality concerns.

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“If Project 2025 recommendations for EPA are implemented, the agency will lose almost all of its ability to protect people and the environment from PFAS contamination,” Betsy Southerland, a retired 30-year employee of EPA who led the agency’s science and technology efforts in the Office of Water, wrote in the new piece.

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