The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

When the head of the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year announced a massive rollback of environmental regulations, he said it would spark a “Golden Age” for the American economy.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced a broad reorganization as part of the Trump administration’s drive to cut costs that some activists worry will harm the agency’s independent scientific research.

A federal judge says some nonprofits awarded billions for a so-called green bank to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects cannot have their contracts scrapped and must have access to some of the frozen money.

As part of a push to roll back dozens of environmental regulations, the Trump administration is offering coal-fired power plants and other industrial polluters a chance to receive exemptions from rules requiring them to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals, including mercury, arsenic and benzene.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research program and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and the environment.

Three former Environmental Protection Agency leaders say rollbacks proposed by the Trump administration endanger the lives of millions of Americans and abandon the agency’s mission to protect the environment and human health.

For nearly 100 years, the former Exide plant melted lead-acid car batteries that polluted properties in the mostly Latino region of southeast Los Angeles.