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Even Trump's EPA transition head doesn't know what changes are coming to the EPA, according to leaked email

Rafi Letzter   

Even Trump's EPA transition head doesn't know what changes are coming to the EPA, according to leaked email
Science2 min read

Don Benton

AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Then-Washington state senator Don Benton, in a 2013 file photo.

Even the head of the EPA's transition doesn't appear to know the Trump administration's plan for the EPA's future, according to an alleged email leaked Monday.

In the leaked email, which was published Monday by Popular Science, transition head Don Benton allegedly tells EPA employees not to trust information from the media, because not even he knows what the future holds for the EPA.

Benton, a former Republican state senator from Vancouver, Washington, has led the transition since January 23.

"I cannot tell you today what the final decisions from the White House, from our new Administrator, and from the Congress will be," he allegedly writes in the email, according to Popular Science. "I can tell you that despite what you read and see on TV, no final decisions have been made with regard to the EPA."

Benton then allegedly tells employees he can't "validate or reject" information or documents from former transition officials published in the press. This is an apparent reference to quotes from former transition head Myron Ebell, who has been quoted suggesting that the EPA's staff could be cut from 15,000 to 5,000, as well as a document suggesting the agency would no longer fund science.

The EPA has not returned emails or calls from Business Insider since Trump took office.

Read the full email over at Popular Science.

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