UCLA researchers and policy experts expressed concerns about the qualifications of new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.

Since his appointment, Zeldin has overseen the rollback of 31 environmental regulations and has attempted to revise the EPA’s 2009 findings that greenhouse gases endanger public health, according to an EPA press release. Zeldin’s EPA has also attempted to terminate $20 billion in grants from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, citing mismanagement, according to the Associated Press.

During a hearing with the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Zeldin said he believed in climate change, and his goal is to use the cleanest possible energy sources, according to National Public Radio.

Gregory Pierce, the co-director of the Luskin Center for Innovation, said the EPA’s role is to protect the relationship between humans and the environment. Pierce, whose work focuses on basic resource provision and access, added that the EPA has not done enough to support and maintain water infrastructure and to advocate for environmental justice.

“I do think the damage to the environment that’s being done has an impact on everyone, even if they don’t think they care about the environment,” he said.

Pierce, an adjunct assistant professor of urban planning, said federal programs related to environmental justice have been cut.

“Anything the administration can do, seemingly, to undermine justice more broadly, but certainly environmental justice – it is doing,” he said.

Lara Cushing, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said her lab was halfway through a project in collaboration with UC Berkeley and several other environmental justice organizations, when the EPA cancelled the lab’s $1.125 million grant. Their research aimed to uncover the health impacts of petroleum refineries and the implications of conversion to biofuels so that policymakers could enact emergency response plans, she added.

Cushing added that universities should present a united front against these efforts, and researchers should raise awareness about the value of scientific research.

“Cutting off funding for climate change and environmental justice research is really going to devastate the pipeline of the next generation of researchers in that field, and because, without (federal) funding, there aren’t fellowships for graduate students to get trained in doing research in this field,” Cushing said.

Julia Stein, the deputy director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the UCLA School of Law, said the Trump administration has structurally deregulated the EPA, impacting both its short-term and long-term abilities.

Stein added that it is important to keep in mind the legal processes that allow for regulations to be rolled back or for executive orders to be passed.

“Just because something is in an executive order doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to happen or that it’s legal,” Stein said.

In response to Zeldin’s EPA changes, Stein said states such as California can use legal frameworks, such as provisions in the Clean Air Act, that allow the state to set its own emission standards. These frameworks can circumvent the actions taken by the Trump administration. California may also use its own authorities to continue its environmental regulations through more creative means, she added.

Michael Ross, a professor in political science and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, said the politicization of climate change and the environment is a somewhat recent occurrence. Republican-leaning voters have not changed their stance on the environment in the last few decades, while Democratic-leaning voters have become more concerned with the environment, leading to a divide that was less distinct 30 years ago, he added.

“If the two parties are far apart in their views, that means there’s going to be a kind of whiplash in climate policies, and there’s not a consensus on what a long-term strategy is,” Ross said. “Unfortunately, this is such a long-term problem that we need long-term strategies, long-term policies, in place in order to address it,”

Marinelle Villanueva, a doctoral student in environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said the ongoing rollbacks and research funding cuts are detrimental to marginalized communities. Villanueva, a researcher in Cushing’s lab, added that the EPA said their lab’s research no longer aligned with the organization’s priorities.

“Without this research – the empirical knowledge that drives policy changes – it leaves behind a lot of crucial gaps,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva added that it is the EPA’s responsibility to ensure equitable access and distribution of environmental resources to communities. She encouraged people to be aware of what’s happening regarding climate change – even if they are yet to see the direct impact of it.

“It’s important for all of us to be aware that climate change is happening,” Villanueva said. “And that we allow leaders who understand the ramifications, to take positions where they are fit, to secure a healthy life for our people in our state, but also our nation and globally.”