To EPA Employees: Do your job

Dear EPA Employees,

Your job is to:

• implement the laws passed by Congress that EPA has been designated to manage, as guided by policies set by the Administrator
• identify and communicate serious risks to the environment for use by decision-makers in the EPA administrative offices
• develop and evaluate risk mitigation options for use by decision-makers who are responsible for setting priorities and getting funding to address those risks.

If you can't manage to convince the decision-makers - appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate - to make the "right" decisions according to your opinion, you have two choices:

1. do what your bosses tell you to (but keep respectfully trying to convince them you're right)
2. quit and figure out another way to influence the decision-makers or become one yourself

I recommend you acknowledge Scott Pruitt as the EPA Administrator, your boss.  He is biased toward state decision-making.  You are biased toward federal control. Prepare all your recommendations carefully and thoroughly to justify that they are scientifically and economically valid.  You both want what's best for the well-being of humans and the environment. Turn down the emotion. Turn up the dialog on what that means and how to get there.