At a Glance

The EPA reportedly plans to offer early retirement and buyout incentives to up to 1,228 employees.Nine members of the Board of Scientific Counselors were notified of their termination in an email.

Dozens of esteemed scientists will reportedly lose their jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency by August as the agency continuesto downsize amidsteep budget cuts.

According to an email obtained by the Washington Post, among the dozens that will no longer work for the agency are, which will not have their terms renewedwhen they expire in August.

The 18-member board oversees research conducted by the agency’s scientists, which is used to draft rules and regulations on issues that include the emissions of carbon dioxide, which drive climate change.

In total, the EPA and to up to 1,228 employees. The move comesin light of severe proposed by President Donald Trump.

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Additionally, five meetings of subcommitteeswill be canceled and rescheduled until the board is reconstituted with new members, with members of the corporate world rather than the scientific community, some say.

“EPA is grateful for the service of all BOSC members, past and present, and has encouraged those with expiring terms to reapply,” agency spokeswoman Amy Graham told the Washington Post.“We are taking an inclusive approach to filling future BOSC appointments and welcome all applicants from all relevant scientific and technical fields.”

Those whose terms are expiring are permitted to reapplybefore June 30, according to acting assistant administrator of the Office of Research and Development Robert Kavlock.

Traditionally, three-year terms have been renewed if members wish to continue to serve.

“To be renewed for a second term is usually anticipated, expected, and the only time you might not serve a second term is if your expertise was no longer needed,” Swackhamer told the Post.

The New York Times noted as a "campaign by the Trump administration to shrink the agency’s regulatory reach by reducing the role of academic research."

“This is completely part of a multifaceted effort to get science out of the way of a deregulation agenda,” Ken Kimmell, the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told the New York Times. “What seems to be premature removals of members of this Board of Science Counselors when the board has come out in favor of the EPA strengthening its climate science, plus the severe cuts to research and development – you have to see all these things as interconnected.”

J. P. Freire, aspokesman for EPAadministratorScott Pruitt, told the New York Times academic scientists may be replaced with representatives from industries whose pollution the agency is supposed to regulate.

“The administrator believes we should have people on this board who understand the impact of regulations on the regulated community,” Freire told the Times.

The EPA has removed some scientific data on climate change from its websites in recent weeks, and both Pruitt and Energy Secretary Rick Perry have questioned the validity of established science behind the findings of human-caused climate change.

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