Good news, everyone! This week, Ryan Jackson, former Inhofe staffer turned Chief of Staff at the EPA, the one accused of bullying scientists over their congressional testimony and otherwise stonewalling the Office of the Inspector General, has decided to stop pretending to work on the public’s behalf and go work for the National Mining Association. Although he appears to have been taking direction from them already, according to emails obtained by E&E .

Jackson is formally prohibited from lobbying under Trump’s ethics pledge, but because “Trump ethics pledge” is an oxymoron, that doesn’t mean much. While it prevents him from lobbying the EPA for five years, he’s allowed to be involved in court cases, regulation enforcement actions, and rulemakings.

In other “revolving door” updates, former EPA political appointee Clint Woods, who likely inflated figures to try and embarrass California, is already leaving the Ohio State University position created for him by the Nationwide Insurance Foundation after blowback from national environmental groups and, more importantly, local student organizations.

While we’re pretty sure no one at the EPA or Ohio State is going to be upset over Jackson’s or Woods’ departure, there has been a lamentable brain drain across the federal government as career experts have left or been forced out.

Or, as is the case for the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, key positions simply haven’t been filled. We mention that position because it was once held by Dr. David Michaels, who in an interview with E&E describes one of the threats posed by understaffed regulatory agencies: the corrupt influence of industry. And this is the topic he explores in his new book, “ The Triumph of Doubt. ”

The book expands on Michaels’s past work, and that of others, with just an excerpt providing an impressively in-depth look at exactly how industry hires “mercenary scientists” to serve as its defenders, with tactics ranging from fake front groups to endless re-analysis or risk assessment processes, and beyond.

Michaels describes a worrying number of examples of industry pseudo-science fighting regulators and endangering lives, and warns that if government agencies aren’t prepared for this onslaught, it’s the public that loses. For example, the Boeing 737 Max failures are cited as an example of the FAA having “abdicated its responsibilities to Boeing, because the FAA is underfunded, understaffed and doesn’t have the expertise that’s necessary to oversee the safety of modern jet airliners.”

While Michaels makes no hesitation in criticizing how the Trump administration has (mis-)handled science and regulations, he also makes it clear that these issues predate Trump. The tobacco industry, he argues, is the patron saint of industrial denial. This denial will continue on regardless of who is in the White House.

Unless, of course, that person follows his advice “to rebuild our regulatory agencies” in ways that learn from past mistakes, instead of repeating them.

But the problem is, to those who benefit from them, they aren’t mistakes at all.