3 former Republican EPA chiefs give current agency a 'D' grade

Devin Dwyer, William Reilly, Lee Thomas and Christine Whitman.

They've been there and done that and now they're disappointed with the work of their successors.

Three former Republican heads of the Environmental Protection Agency told ABC News on Tuesday that the current EPA under the Trump administration deserves a D grade, or maybe "a little lower" for its work. Christine Whitman, William Reilly, and Lee Thomas, who led the agency under former Presidents George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, respectively, all agreed that the EPA's current leadership is supporting the "undermining of science" and taking a potentially "catastrophic" approach to climate change. They all also said they were concerned that the U.S. is heading toward undoing its recent gains in cleaner air and water.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.