Energy

Enviros Panic About Trump’s Potential Big Cuts To Gov’t Green Programs

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

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Andrew Follett Energy and Science Reporter
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Environmentalists are panicking over potential cuts to their favorite government agencies before President Donald Trump has even released his proposed budget.

The White House announced Monday the budget proposal will increase defense spending by $54 billion and cut roughly the same amount from non-defense programs.

“Ocean Conservancy is deeply concerned by reports that President Trump will propose a drastic and indiscriminate reduction in America’s investments in water and the ocean, both here at home and abroad,” Addie Haughey, a government relations director for the environmentalist group Ocean Conservancy, said in a press statement.

Trump intends to ask Congress for cuts to the EPA’s budget of 24 percent, or nearly $2 billion, according to sources. EPA had a budget of more than $8.1 billion in 2016.

“Reported cuts of up to ten percent could mean $600 million at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), our nation’s premier ocean agency,” Haughey said. “Coupled with reckless cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the threats to our ocean multiply.”

The Trump administration allegedly instructed the EPA to freeze all grants for projects, research on global warming, air quality monitoring and education. It also told employees not to discuss the spending freeze outside the agency, according to anonymous reports from several left-leaning media outlets.

A leaked memo from Trump’s transition team indicates that the administration plans $513 million in cuts to the EPA’s “states and tribal assistance grants,” $193 million from eliminating agency global warming programs and another $109 million in savings cutting “environment programs and management.”

At least one environmental journalist acknowledged he was seeing a therapist to cope with feelings of grief about Trump’s election. EPA employees are reportedly arriving at work in tears because of Trump.

Major figures in the environmental movement openly characterize Trump as a huge opponent of their movement, and aren’t looking forward to the coming years.

“Make no mistake — the election of Donald Trump could be devastating for our climate and our future,” Michael Brune, executive director of The Sierra Club, wrote in a press statement the day after Trump’s victory. “Donald Trump now has the unflattering distinction of being the only head of state in the entire world to reject the scientific consensus that mankind is driving climate change. ”

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