Environmental Protection Agency reviews

Leadership can vary. I worked under a Regional Administrator who inspired faith and dedication, was utterly unafraid to speak truth to power (was key in removing the Agency's Administrator under Reagan), and would give any employee a respectful audience. He was replaced by a self-serving organization-climber, who hired and promoted people with the same mindset. Sometimes positions in top management slot go empty for years at a time due to Washington politics, leaving a void filled by sometimes capable second-level managers and sometimes with incompetent ones at or beyond their Peter Principle levels, who can misdirect entire programs with long-lasting detriment. Other frustrations derive from the Presidential Administrations and some in Congress, varying from funding uncertainties to efforts to either shut down programs or use the system to tie the hands of the employees. Some managers build little fiefdoms and surround themselves with a few loyal toadies for mutual self-aggrandizement, and let otherwise dedicated employees wither on the vine.

Politics on both sides of the aisle are not good for environmental progress; there is a inability to get anything done that would really protect the environment given the political climate for the past 14 years!!