President Trump’s budget proposal is reckless. Its funding cuts would put the health and safety of all Americans at risk, and hobble our efforts to build a vibrant clean energy economy and take action against the threat of climate change. We will do everything we can to protect the valuable programs that keep us safe.
The unconscionable 31 percent funding cut for the Environmental Protection Agency, which would erode the federal government’s ability to protect our communities from pollution. It would take America’s environmental cop off the beat by weakening EPA’s enforcement, thus freeing polluting companies to do whatever they want — no matter the impact on our health.
All Americans expect and deserve clean air and water. EPA’s job is by no means done. Even today, up to ten million homes across still get their drinking water through lead pipes – in Flint, Michigan and across the nation. Half of all Americans live in counties with unhealthy air quality. We need to be moving forward, not backward – especially when it comes to protecting children, the elderly, and others who are vulnerable to lung and heart disease.
President Trump’s budget proposal eliminates all funding for the Clean Power Plan – the centerpiece of our fight against climate change – and returns us to the days of unlimited climate pollution. It eliminates funding for international climate change programs and climate change research. It also eliminates funding to clean up the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay, and for more than 50 other EPA programs that help make sure our families have clean air and safe water.
The budget proposal nearly halves funding for EPA’s Office of Research and Development, gutting the scientific underpinning of much of EPA’s work, including the toxics program. That cut would do serious damage to EPA’s ability to implement the bipartisan reforms of the Toxic Substances Control Act, which Congress passed just last year.
President Trump’s budget would slash funding at the Department of Energy, including eliminating the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program (ARPA-E), which commercializes cutting-edge technological innovations from batteries to clean cars. It would slash funding for other clean energy programs as well. Clean energy technologies like wind, solar and energy efficiency have been one of the few bright spots of steady job growth for the energy industry.
Internationally, cutting funding from the State Department’s critical climate programs hurts America diplomatically, and would open a leadership void for China and Europe to step into. The rest of the world understands that climate change isn’t a hoax. The U.S. risks falling farther behind in the clean energy race.
The budget proposal slashes climate change research and adaptation programs at NASA and NOAA, undermining our ability to get reliable scientific information and help coastal communities adapt to changing conditions. Cuts to the Department of the Interior will eliminate our National Heritage Areas and the National Wildlife Refuge Fund.
This is an all-out assault on the health of our planet and the health and safety of the American people. President Trump’s budget proposal is an overzealous attempt to undermine America’s most basic environmental protections, with no concern about the serious harm it will cause to our families and communities.
Cleaning up our air and protecting our waters are core American values. The ‘skinny budget’ threatens those values – and puts us all at risk.
Verona native Fred Krupp is the long-time president of the Environmental Defense Fund. As a student at Verona High School, Krupp started its first Earth Day celebration in 1972.
