The EPA has always been a low priority
Re “A wrong-way agency,” Jan. 28
The Environmental Protection Agency has been a wrong-way agency since it was founded by cannibalizing parts of long-established agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Food and Drug Administration. These preexisting agencies kept their better scientists, while their weaker ones transferred to the new EPA. Legal and political expertise at the EPA focused on its regulatory/enforcement mission, while environmental science and science-informed policy advocacy were relegated to low priorities.
RAYMOND A. FLECK
Retired Director of Research
Cal Poly Pomona
La Verne
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