So much for EPA protecting the environment

Its goal is to protect the environment. Its name, after all, is the Environmental Protection Agency. So it makes sense that those working there be committed to protecting the environment by enforcing anti-pollution laws and protecting public health. We aren’t seeing so much of that these days, with President Trump pushing for deep cuts in the EPA’s budget and proposing massive layoffs of agency employees. Now comes word that the person just named to be in charge of the EPA’s midwest office, which oversees Wisconsin and four other states, is a woman who formerly served in the Scott Walker administration. Cathy Stepp served as Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Her track record in protecting our environment was less than stellar. As Wisconsin’s DNR Secretary, Stepp worked to roll back the enforcement of anti-pollution laws, and reduced funding for scientific research. And Stepp was behind the effort to scrub any references to human-caused climate change from state government websites. The fox has been put in charge of a henhouse that now includes five midwestern states. Stepp has a terrible track record of actually protecting our environment. Now in her new role, she is taking her pro-business, anti-regulation agenda to an even larger scale. That should be alarming to all who look to the EPA to actually do its stated job and protect the environment.