Chris Sellers

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Environmental Protection Agency staff and contractors are often involved in large cleanups of toxic waste, such as after the Los Angeles fires of early 2025. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Trump administration is on track to cut 1 in 3 EPA staffers by the end of 2025, slashing agency’s ability to keep pollution out of air and water

Elizabeth Blum, Troy University and Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)

Careful research into public information and in-depth interviews has shown the scale of personnel cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Oil refiners are fined for exceeding air pollution limits when rules are enforced. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

The EPA has backed off enforcement under Trump – here are the numbers

Marianne Sullivan, William Paterson University; Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York); Leif Fredrickson, University of Montana, and Sarah Lamdan, CUNY School of Law

Data gathered from EPA reports, staffers and retirees show the Trump administration has brought fewer environmental enforcement actions to conclusion and deferred more to states.
Protesters at a rally on the state of the EPA organized by the American Federation of Government Employees union, April 25, 2018, in Washington, D.C. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

EPA staff say the Trump administration is changing their mission from protecting human health and the environment to protecting industry

Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York); Lindsey Dillon, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Phil Brown, Northeastern University

Government agencies are supposed to listen to the industries they regulate, but what if they tune out everyone else? Scholars call this regulatory capture, and some staffers see it happening at EPA.
Breezy Point, New York off the coast of Long Island after the storm surge from Superstorm Sandy. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Storms hit poorer people harder, from Superstorm Sandy to Hurricane Maria

Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)

Five years after Superstorm Sandy, we see how disadvantaged social groups suffered more from the storm before and after – much as we’re seeing in Hurricanes Harvey and Maria.

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