NORTH CAROLINA — Local environmentalist leaders are expressing concern that broad-ranging cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency will impede clean water initiatives in North Carolina. A new lawsuit seeks to halt Elon Musk’s influence over environmental regulation until DOGE complies with federal transparency requirements.
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the EPA and four other cabinet agencies Monday to stop the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk its de facto leader, from taking further actions against environmental regulators until the new agency proves its compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
The environmentalist group argues federal agencies have failed to ensure DOGE’s compliance with the 1972 law requiring advisory committees to disclose activities, avoid conflicts of interest, and ensure public participation in meetings. Musk has not filed public ethics disclosures or undergone a confirmation hearing, raising conflict of interest and security concerns as his companies have received billions in federal contracts and subsidies.
“The central premise of the Federal Advisory Committee Act is transparency,” Center for Biological Diversity government affairs director Brett Hartl told Port City Daily. “It is about having an element of sunlight and disclosure so the public has an opportunity to know if things they care about are being undermined or dismantled behind the scenes.”
The Center for Biological Diversity’s suit comes a week after President Donald Trump announced recently-appointed EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s plans to cut the agency’s budget by 65%. The Trump administration has fired at least 400 EPA employees so far, including 30 probationary staff researchers at the agency’s North Carolina Research Triangle Park campus.
“Without question, we will continue to account for every penny spent by the agency,” Zeldin said in a press release last week. “Through President Trump’s leadership, we will ensure taxpayer dollars spent bolster our commitment to safeguarding human health and the environment and our Powering the Great American Comeback initiative to unleash energy dominance, implement permitting reform, make America the AI capital of the world, and bring back American auto jobs.”
Clean Cape Fear co-founder Emily Donovan described the administration’s removal of a draft regulation to provide guidance to state regulators and limit PFAS discharges in the organic chemical, plastic, and synthetic fiber industries as a concerning development for the Cape Fear region.
“That’s a big problem for us because that’s data that states can use to help inform state level water quality standards,” she said. “Without that information North Carolina is on its own to try and figure all that out. And we know North Carolina’s [Department of Environmental Quality] has been notoriously underfunded by the General Assembly.”
Southern Environmental Law Center program director Geoff Gisler similarly raised concerns about the EPA cuts on clean water efforts in North Carolina.
“EPA researchers have been at the forefront in identifying PFAS in the Cape Fear River and developing solutions to keep communities that depend on it safe,” Gisler said. “That’s just one example of how the proposed cuts to EPA, if carried out, will make our water more polluted and deprive North Carolinians of essential protections. Clean air and water don’t happen on their own; the staff and funding targeted by these cuts are essential to protecting our quality of life.”
Trump and Musk — who donated $288 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign — have repeatedly claimed Musk is leading DOGE; attorneys representing the informal agency stated Musk is only a “senior advisor” in recent legal filings. The Trump administration is facing over a dozen lawsuits challenging DOGE’s role in the firing of thousands of workers, obtaining confidential data, and blocking payments appropriated by Congress.
DOGE has carried out sweeping staff cuts at agencies regulating Musk’s businesses, which were under investigation by at least five of the 18 inspectors general Trump fired in the first week of his presidency. DOGE is rejecting public records requests despite receiving at least $40 million in public funds and is staffed largely by former employees’ of Musk’s companies.
“Mr. Musk and other billionaire and tech executives working with DOGE stand to benefit personally and financially from the DOGE teams’ work,” Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit stated, “including by securing government contracts, slashing environmental rules that apply to their companies, and reducing the government’s regulatory capacity and authority.”
The Environmental Protection Agency regulates Musk’s companies, including SpaceX, the Boring Company, Tesla, and xAI. SpaceX and the Boring Company have faced multiple violations of the Clean Water Act for discharging pollutants into public water ways.
Tesla cited hazardous substance regulatory changes, including 1,4-dioxane and PFAS, as a business risk factor in a 2022 financial disclosure.
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