Outgoing EPA Chief Maintains Optimism By Ignoring Trump Entirely

The reporters wanted to talk about a different scorpion, too: President-elect Donald Trump, who is also sure to train his claws on the EPA. Trump has pledged to ax the “Department of Environmental.” He also thinks that climate change a top issue at the agency under President Barack Obama is a hoax, and appointed a climate change denier to lead his transition work.

But McCarthy studiously avoided the topic of Trump. She listed the work she is most proud of in her four years as the administrator rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, rules on disposal of coal ash, rules clarifying what waters are governed by the Clean Water Act.

“While the world continues to change, EPA’s mission continues to endure,” McCarthy said. “Our mission is to protect public health to safeguard the precious natural resources we need to survive and thrive. Our task is timeless. It is non-partisan. It is essential to every single life.”

“It doesn’t mater if you’re an Republican or a Democrat, you want your children to be healthy and our future to be sound,” she said later in her remarks. “The agency is doing its work well, and people will still want the same things they’ve always wanted.”

In the question and answer period, McCarthy skirted a question about what part of her legacy she would beg Trump to save. “We’re going to wait and see. My job right now is to do a smooth transition. If you sit in my shoes, you see the breadth of what the agency does every day,” she said. She specifically mentioned all the work the EPA does consulting with state and regional offices about local problems. “It’s really hard not to respond to those calls,” she continued. “I expect that will continue and the next administration will respond.”

McCarthy got a few angry yelled questions from the audience a Dakota Access pipeline opponent who wanted to know why she hadn’t spoken about it and a Pennsylvania resident worried about groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing. But for the most part, she stuck to upbeat talking points about how the agency’s work will continue because the American public values clean air, clean water and public health.

McCarthy was also asked about a memo she sent to staff after Trump’s election indicating their work would continue through the end of the administration. “As I’ve mentioned to you before, we’re running—not walking—through the finish line of President Obama’s presidency,” McCarthy wrote, as InsideClimate News reported.

She declined to elaborate about what, exactly, the EPA would like to get over that finish line on Monday. “I don’t have any secrets. Our agenda is out there,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do.”

“There’s one president at a time, and I’m working for this one,” she continued. “And I’m going to continue to do it. We’re focused on the work ahead and the work we have to do.”