Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

What a Gutted EPA Would Cost Our Communities

Governing: By all accounts, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) faces the likelihood of significant budget and staffing cuts under the new presidential administration; the questions are by how much and what programs would remain. But while the news and general commentary is focused on familiar complaints about regulation, one of the considerations missing from the discourse is an understanding of how these cuts would adversely affect local communities.

President Trump's preliminary budget released last week proposes cutting EPA's discretionary spending by fully 31 percent -- the most of any large federal agency -- and the president has said he wants to cut the agency's workforce by one-fifth. The budget blueprint asserts that "more than" 50 programs will be eliminated, with just a few that help regions and local communities specifically identified, including the South Florida and Great Lakes programs and the familiar and widely used Energy Star program.

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