The Corporate Capture of Environmental Regulators

To Clean Up the Environment, We Must Clean Up the Agencies that Protect It

Government regulatory agencies are supposed to protect the environment, not work for corporate polluters. But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Interior (DOI), and other federal agencies have been captured by corporate interests and extractive industries.

In his 40 years as an environmental attorney, Kennedy has learned first-hand how to unravel the corporate capture of environmental agencies. In a lawsuit against chemical-agriculture giant Monsanto, Kennedy discovered that a top EPA official working on pesticides had been secretly colluding with Monsanto for years.

Rather than clean up our agencies, Presidents Trump and Biden have deepened the problem of corporate capture. Trump installed representatives of the coal and oil industries to run the EPA, and rolled back more than 100 environmental rules governing clean air, water, wildlife, and toxic chemicals at the behest of corporate donors. Biden has loaded federal agencies with corporate insiders.

The Norfolk Southern train derailment, which released 1.1 million pounds of hazardous chemicals into the environment in and around East Palestine, Ohio, highlighted the corporate capture of regulatory agencies that Trump and Biden have both overseen. The East Palestine disaster could have been prevented if the Department of Transportation (DOT) had made train operators comply with reasonable safety regulations.

As President, Kennedy will draw on his decades of experience to root out corporate influence in the federal bureaucracy. He will replace corporate-captured leaders with honest public servants, and carry out his comprehensive plan to end the corporate capture of all regulatory agencies within the federal government.