Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

The lonely fight to save an EPA lab from Trump's climate cuts

E&E News: ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Dozens of new cars and trucks go into surgery each day on the quiet green campus here in the heart of auto country. Engineers expose their guts, hook them up to big computers with wires and tubes, and pretend to drive them on massive treadmills in an effort to ensure new vehicles don't emit harmful pollution.

U.S. EPA's National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory is little known but envied around the world as the gold standard for crafting and policing environmental rules for vehicles. Now, the Trump administration's charge against its predecessor's climate change initiatives has put a target on its back.

The jobs of nearly half of the 436 scientists and engineers working here could be on the chopping block under President Trump's budget plan. But so far, only a handful of advocates have lined up to fight for the lab's future.

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