‘Astounding’: Experts stunned as EPA staff ousted for calling out misinformation

Experts are thrashing the Environmental Protection Agency and Secretary Lee Zeldin for retaliating against a group of workers who signed a public letter calling out the "misinformation" coming from the agency.

The EPA placed 139 employees on administrative leave because they signed the letter, dubbed a "declaration of dissent" against President Donald Trump's policies, Axios reported Thursday. The letter says that Zeldin has used his official capacity as EPA Secretary to "promote misinformation and overtly partisan rhetoric."

Some examples the letter points to include using EPA social media to promote Trump's budget bill, contradicting the EPA's assessments on health risks from various chemicals, and canceling environmental justice programs.

More than 600 people have signed the letter, including 500 active EPA employees.

"In America, employees cannot email their bosses about concerns in their place of employment now. It's astounding," Stand Up for Science founder and executive director Colette Delawalla told Axios.

Zeldin said in a statement that the agency he leads has "zero-tolerance for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration's agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November."

The EPA's move comes on the heels of Trump's budget bill passing the House of Representatives, which puts the legislation one step closer to becoming law. The bill provides a significant boost to fossil fuels while hindering the development of renewable energy. It also could strain the nation's aging energy grid, experts say.

“People are going to die,” Carol Greider, a Nobel laureate and professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told NBC News. “And if we don’t have scientists at the EPA to understand how what we do that goes into the air affects our health, more people are going to die."