Mike Zatz was not planning to leave the Environmental Protection Agency. For two decades, Zatz worked within the department’s Energy Star program, managing the commercial building side of the public-private partnership focused on energy efficiency. “I loved the program. I loved what we were doing. I loved the success that we were having,” he says.

But in June, when the EPA offered a second round of early retirement (or deferred resignation), Zatz was one of more than 1,400 employees to step away. The offer came after President Trump and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency rolled out mass terminations and program cuts to shrink the federal workforce at large.

It also came after Trump took aim at Energy Star specifically. In May, Trump announced his plans to shut the program

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