File:EPA orders a halt - Sept 2025.jpg

September 2025

Environmental Protection Agency tells scientists to stop publishing studies

Scientific work and publications halted as 'new review process' is announced

September 20, 2025

• https://wapo.st/3VrOcca

Washington Post Article Comments

AI-selected Comment 'Highlights'

Summary: The comments express strong criticism of the EPA's decision to pause research and stop publishing studies from its Office of Water under the Trump administration. Many commenters view this as a move towards censorship and an erosion of scientific integrity, comparing it to authoritarian practices. They argue that this decision undermines public trust, restricts access to vital environmental information, and prioritizes corporate interests over public health and environmental protection. There is a sense of urgency and concern about the long-term impacts on democracy and scientific progress.

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(Top 10 'Recommended' list)

• 'The news provided in this article is another sign of how the Trump administration is dismantling the administrative state that keeps our federal government functioning. They are denying Americans access to vital information needed to hold the government accountable to protecting our welfare. No doubt some information will be allowed to be published, but there's also little doubt that the information "approved" for distribution will be biased, skewed, and mask potential harms to the American people. This is censorship at the highest level and yet another affront to the American people's right to transparency from our government officials who, after all, work for us.

• We can trust Trump's EPA to protect our environment as much as we can trust RFK JR. to protect our health care.

• At the water association where I worked, sometimes EPA’s research conclusions differed from ours, but the agency does have access to data that no one else does. Its data and analysis are vital to developing information, guidance or regulations to protect human and environmental health. Now, it looks like politicians will be editing science-that never ends well.

• Happy 8-month anniversary today, by the way. We’re about 16% of the way to nowhere.

• There is a pattern here. During the George W. Bush administration, they told some researchers, including James Hansen, that they were required to present papers which were to be presented at scientific meetings for prior approval. Hansen was working on issues involving air quality, which has been a sensitive are with conservatives for some time. Hansen made a lot of public noise, and the policy was dropped. Will public pressure deter this administration, I don't know. But I do see a pattern.

• I was just talking to my husband about how 10-20 years from now we won't be able to cite federally funded research from the Trump era. Not just environmental, but human health research too. Most political appointees aren’t qualified enough to know anything about the scientific integrity behind any of these studies. Thank goodness, I worked for a non political agency that believed in scientific integrity.

• I do not forget the research that Washington Post and others published last year about water in the United States. I remember that the deeper and deeper bore holes for wells, et cetera meant digging into arsenic in clay. I remember that water is actually disappearing in a United States becoming dryer and dryer. In the name of profit, freedom to pollute has meant polluted tapwater has been in the news a few times over the years and doesn’t go away. Looks like Trump wants to start telling you how wonderful the water is these days compared to the past under his rule and benevolent presence. When Trump started talking about annexing Canada, it was obvious it was about water because water has not been properly managed in the United States over a long period of time and Canada has a lot of water in comparison. The good news is you have been able to print this warning about threat to research. there’s an old saying: forewarned is forearmed.

• Good grief. We are doomed. The costs of not knowing the science and the costs for health impacts, violent storms and flooding will be astronomical. Sadly, what they don’t ‘get’ is that innovation needed to correct things and protect us HELPS the economy. They are going to kill that too. I just hope that other countries are keepers of the knowledge and truth and can protect their own people.

• Is wrong to require political censure of research. This is research that the public is paying for is for tax dollars and should not be subject to the opinions of political appointees.

• Scrolled through some good posts, but I want to highlight a word I didn't see yet: This is more CENSORSHIP, just like Carr on Kimmel, Trump on universities, Kennedy on health science, the whole administration on Kirk,... When have we had enough and when do we take action? Call your Congress members now and tell them to use the debt ceiling fight to shut the government down. Dems need to make about a hundred demands and sit tight until Trumplicans come to the table. For example, restoring all executive watchdog groups and individuals, ending pressure on the press and universities, and making Trumplicans commit, without qualifications, to a First Amendment that guarantees all speech without equivocation. Revoke and ban declarations of faux emergencies. Stop Trump's use of troops on US soil. These are a few of many possible asks for restorations of checks and balances and Constitutional guarantees. During the shutdown, Dems need to organize and promote nationwide protests, strikes, and'or non-violent civil disobedience. All the Dems need to do is partner with and promote no Kings or similar organizations. Please use your phones, call your Congress members, and do something more than scroll and comment.

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(570 comments as of 1 pm EST - Sept 20, 2025)

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