History

In 1970, in response to the growing public concern about environmental pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established. As a federal agency in the United States, the EPA’s primary objective is to safeguard human health and the environment. The EPA ensures clean air, land, and water for Americans, reduces environmental risks based on scientific information, administers and enforces federal laws that protect health and the environment, and integrates environmental stewardship into the U.S. The EPA is the current Administrator of the EPA. The EPA headquarters is in Washington, D.C.

Read our profile on the United States government and media.

Funded by / Ownership

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not explicitly state its funding sources on its “Funding Instruments and Authorities“ page. Nevertheless, it explains how the EPA uses its funding and outlines the legal and regulatory framework in which it operates. Conversely, data from usaspending.gov shows the total amount allocated to the EPA by the end of 2024.

Analysis / Bias

In review, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides crucial information about safeguarding human health and the environment in the USA. For instance, an article on Acid Rain provides comprehensive, science-backed information about its causes, effects, and mitigation strategies, reflecting the EPA’s commitment to delivering factual and research-driven content. However, it’s noteworthy that the content and policy emphasis reflected the previous Biden administration.

Historically, EPA content has been pro-science and data-driven; however, recent top-level communications and regulatory moves under Administrator Lee Zeldin indicate a sharp ideological shift away from the agency’s climate science consensus. EPA has issued a proposal to rescind the Obama-era “Endangerment Finding,” the 2009 determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health—i.e., the legal foundation for regulating climate pollution under the Clean Air Act.

Outside coverage summarizing Zeldin’s posture quotes him celebrating a move to “drive a dagger straight into the heart of the climate-change religion,” and outlines how rescinding the finding would gut core air and water protections. This combination—framing mainstream climate science as “religion,” advancing deregulatory actions that contradict prior EPA science assessments, and elevating contrarian work criticized by domain experts—signals a marked right-leaning policy and messaging bias with anti-science/pseudoscientific narratives on climate.

Generally, we rate EPA (epa.gov) as Right-Biased with a “mixed” reliability for climate-policy communications, due to leadership-driven messaging that dismisses consensus climate science and a formal move to rescind the greenhouse-gas Endangerment Finding. While many legacy scientific resources on epa.gov remain factual and useful, the present top-level climate communications and regulatory framing exhibit propaganda-like rhetoric and pseudoscientific positioning, lowering confidence in new climate-related content.

Failed Fact Checks

• None in the Last 5 years. 

Overall, we rate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as right-biased based on its current leadership’s deregulatory, anti-climate science agenda under Administrator Lee Zeldin. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the promotion of pseudoscientific claims, weakened environmental protections, and reduced credibility compared with their prior pro-science record. (M. Huitsing 10/01/2023) Updated (09/09/2025)

Source: https://www.epa.gov/