In the city, where world-class masterpieces are lined with marble temples at the National Mall, a small museum dedicated to the Environmental Protection Agency's work hidden in federal buildings near the White House has not affected the fanfare much. But this humble tribute to the EPA's mission to clash and burn Washington's federal bureaucracy, curb pollution and combat climate change is perhaps a symbol of resilience, as it is unaware that the museum exists.
The National Environmental Museum and Education Center, known for its EPA Museum, opened in 2024 on the first floor of the imposing William Jefferson Clinton building north of Pennsylvania Avenue. The space is small, bright and contrasts with the monotonous display of nearby federal buildings that served as a beta for the museum while something specially designed.
As the Trump administration threatens potentially huge staff and budget cuts, the museum quickly became a source of evidence for a disrupted and diminished institution.
“It was a truly labor of love,” said Stan Mayberg, who served as deputy EPA administrator from 2014 to 2017. Dr. Maybarg recalls that inspiration for the EPA's work came after then EPA administrator Gina McCarthy visited the Environmental Museum in Japan in 2015. “It really needed everything,” Dr. Mayberg recalled in an interview. “People were very enthusiastic about it.”
Some are still there. Sen. Nate Bruin, a Democrat of Utah, was in Washington last summer, but found himself delightedly surprised that he had “stumbled” through the museum shortly before returning home. “I enjoyed wandering through the space thoroughly and came across an exhibit that cried out at the public bike program in Salt Lake City,” Bruin wrote in an email. “It would be a shame to see work respecting the country's environmental outcomes as a smash abolishment of political stance.”
It was the show of power over Trump and his supporters that took the stance towards Bruin. The walk just outside the Clinton North Building, formerly at the headquarters of the International Development Agency, became the first target of Musk and the so-called government efficiency in January. The agency's headquarters were closed, with signs covered and removed, throwing its workforce into chaos. Institutions across the administrative sector are facing similar cuts, and the administration-wide initiative to remove climate change references in agency communications, including websites, and obligations to comply with the President's executive order to cancel all diversity initiatives.
New EPA administrator Lee Zeldin is a close ally of President Trump, who failed to become New York governor in 2022, and has no clear experience in environmental protection. Zeldin has cancelled a roughly $60 million contract related to a news release called “The Wasted DEI and Environmental Justice Initiatives” using abbreviations for diversity, equity and inclusion. The agency's new “Great American Comeback” initiative aims to promote automobile manufacturing, artificial intelligence capabilities and energy production. The goal is not generally considered to be within the EPA. Zeldin also celebrated the Gulf of Mexico's renamed Gulf of Mexico as the “American Gulf” by quickly changing the name of the EPA's division focused on the region.
Zeldin expressed his willingness to work with Musk to praise the recent federal firing, hiring industry figures, including formaldehyde lobbyists, at the top ranks of the EPA.
Still, officials working at the EPA headquarters were cautiously optimistic. “I think I still feel a new leadership,” the official said. He said new EPA officials were never “completely cruel and lightly missed” as new political appointees from other agencies, or EPA appointees who served during Trump's first term.
EPA press did not respond to a request for comment.
Even if a federal pillar falls around it, the small EPA museum stands. Access is free, but it's not without barriers. Firstly, there is an entrance door, but it is very heavy and indomitable, and it is very easy to assume that the building is closed. Ultimately, the gesture guard indicates that it is not. Inside, airport-style security checks await you with separate bins for laptops and bags. This is, after all, a federal government building.
For better or worse, there is no gift store.
On a recent afternoon, the EPA played host to about six students at George Washington University. Their professors, who are public health experts, stood near the entrance to the museum, handing out worksheets. Inside, students were greeted with stories that were largely widened before they were born. The creation of the EPA by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970. 1978 Love's toxic waste crisis in western New York. This created the Super Fund Repair Program. 1982 protests against the dumping of contaminated soil in black communities in 1982. The federal government's response to deepwater horizon oil off the coast of Louisiana in 2010.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the display doesn't have much to say about the chronic lack of funds in the Super Fund Program. Also about the many controversy that Trump's first EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, was forced out of his position in 2018.
Dr. Maeburg, a former EPA official, said the Trump administration recognizes that Republicans and Democrats need clean air and water, and hopes that the EPA museum will remain open as the president's relentless cost cutter was a testament to its work. “You're holding this museum because you're telling a real story,” he said. “That's not partisan.”
