Terry Gross

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 Zeldin.

President Trump has described him as our secret weapon.

Zeldin 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 Zeldin?

She's also the author of the bestseller, The Sixth Extinction.

Our interview was recorded yesterday.

Elizabeth Colbert, welcome back to Fresh Air.

You start your piece in The New Yorker about Zeldin by saying that last summer, more than 150 staff members of the EPA sent a letter to Zeldin about their concerns about his leadership.

What were their concerns?

So the response that they got to that letter was most of them were terminated or put on leave.

Zeldin's response to this letter was to say, we have a zero tolerance policy for agency bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the agenda of this administration.

The will of the American public will not be ignored.

Is it the job of the EPA to carry out the Trump administration's agenda?

There's a move you describe as a breathtaking assault on the Office of Research and Development, also known as the ORD.

So explain what this office does and why it's very important.

So the Office of Research and Development employed about 1,500 people.

What were they told about their future?

And what happened to that department?