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Government agencies from the Department of Agriculture to the Interior Department saw climate scientists quit in droves under former president Donald Trump, according to the New York Times. And they aren’t coming back.
“It’s easy and quick to leave government, not so quick for government to regain the talent,” said Juliette Hart, who left her job with the United States Geological Survey after being pressured to downplay climate change in her research.
That’s going to make it hard for the Biden administration to meet its ambitious climate goals, according to the Times’ reporters. They spoke to current federal employees who said recruitment is lagging because government jobs are no longer seen as insulated from politics.
“My students have told me, I believe in what E.P.A.’s trying to do, but I’m worried that the outcomes of my work will be dictated by the political leaders and not by what the science actually says,” said Stan Meiburg, a former Environmental Protection Agency scientist who now teaches sustainability at Wake Forest University.
Haaland pledges support for "hard-hit energy communities"
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland says she and President Biden won’t leave the communities that helped keep our lights on behind as the country moves toward renewable energy.
She pledged her support to coal communities over the weekend in an op-ed published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in which she touted the Biden administration’s investments in programs meant to clean up the environment and retool traditional energy economies.
“This is personal to me, because I know what it’s like to grow up in a community that’s left behind when mines are closed,” Haaland wrote.
She cited a $16 billion investment the Biden administration is proposing to clean up communities affected by coal and oil and gas development, as well as a grant program to stabilize coal-producing communities, which made over $45 million available to Western states and tribes this year.
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