In the US we call bribery "lobbying" and it is totally legal. Imagine being in that position and knowing you could get a really cushy position on some board and collect a nice paycheck to take care of yourself and your family after doing your time at the EPA.

In reality lobbying is not nearly as cynical as that and I have no doubts the majority of lobbyists truly believe their bullshit. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

This effect has actually been well studied (see studies on "cultural cognition")

In the end its a larger systemic issue and you can't ever really find a specific individual to blame it on. I'd love it if all we had to do was fire the right person. But the the reality is that we need much larger structural changes to prevent stuff like this form happening

EU countries also has lobbyist too from what I understand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying#European_Union

Not exactly the same thing

https://www.politico.eu/article/why-lobbying-in-america-is-d...

Who in the EPA has done that? And who did it in this case?

Might I recommend you check out the link that this discussion section is based around? They document many examples, such as:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3720840-PP-D0608.htm...

I wouldn't know which particular example the OP I was responding to was referring to, so you'd have to ask them

Did you read all that on the internet?

Because lobbying isn't bribing.

The government has a lot of stakeholders to manage.

If we declare the methods that keep the Midwest alive as the breadbasket of the world and the deserts of California and Arizona as our greenhouses as catastrophes, what’s next?

New Jersey isn’t going to be the garden state again. My grandfather used to buy tomatoes in Paramus from a farm cooperative, now a Westfield mall.

Meat is similar. You don’t have to use gross feedlots and unsustainable husbandry methods. But… distributed meatpacking was unionized and hard to consolidate.

In the long run, we’ll have hard times and small scale gardens for vegetables, etc will come back. Where I live in upstate NY, agriculture is absolutely devastated - like 70% of small farmers are basically out of business in a few years if not already. But Amish families are scooping up property in some areas and make a lot of money on farming with non-conventional methods.

The EPA head is a political appointment, even without being bribed they often hire people that already have deep connections to those industries.

How much of the EPA is political appointees and how much is career professionals? How are the career professionals insulated from politics? Who has what power?

> unless they are bribed?

I think you answered that question yourself. They may not be "bribed" directly, but they are put under the direct influence of politicians who can be bought through campaign contributions and lobbying.

Nobody in the EPA is under the direct influence of a politician. The head is appointed by a politician and confirmed by others.

> politicians who can be bought through campaign contributions and lobbying

Some, and to different degrees. Who was bought regarding the EPA and what influence do they have?