John Konkus, an EPA spokesman and former campaign worker for President Donald Trump in Florida, confirmed that the agency scientists would not speak at the program.
"EPA scientists are attending, they simply are not presenting," Konkus told the Hill. "It is not an EPA conference."
However, scientists say much of the discussion at the event centers around climate change and the EPA scientists planned to unveil a 400-page research report on the phenomenon's impact on the Northeast's Narragansett Bay Estuary.