The Environmental Protection Agency faces more than 31 percent in cuts in the final White House fiscal 2018 budget proposal to be rolled out formally Tuesday, according to an advance summary floated by the administration Monday night.
The budget would cut the EPA’s funding by precisely 31.4 percent, or $2.6 billion, which would be the largest reduction for a large Cabinet-size agency. The total budget outlay would fall from $8.2 billion in fiscal 2017 to about $5.6 billion in fiscal 2018, according to a copy of the budget obtained by a national trade group representing state air pollution regulators.
The budget would shutter some 50 programs while laying off 3,200 of the agency’s 15,000 personnel.
Some of the bigger cuts would be made to the agency’s science and technology programs, which would drop from their current $733 million budget to $450 million, according to the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which certifies the document as officially obtained from the administration and which will be distributed Tuesday by the White House.
The Greenhouse Gas Reporting program funding is zeroed out and scrapped in the budget. The program is used to track carbon dioxide and other emissions blamed by many scientists for causing manmade climate change. The federal vehicle fuel standards certification program is cut by more than $17 million, dropping from $93 million in fiscal 2017 to $76 million under Trump’s proposal.
The EPA’s Homeland Security budget, aligned with the national goals of protecting “critical infrastructure,” is zeroed out completely from its $10.4 million budget in fiscal 2017. But its budget for protecting EPA personnel and property only gets a slight shave of $51,000, going from $551,000 to $500,000 in fiscal 2018.
But the most crushing blow is delivered to the agency’s air pollution office, which was in charge of setting climate regulations under the administration of former President Barack Obama. The air office suffers a whopping 67 percent cut in fiscal 2018, falling from $91.7 million to just over $30 million.
As for other agencies, the Department of Energy would suffer a relatively minor 5.4 percent cut, or $1.7 billion. Most of those cuts would be sustained by the agency’s clean energy programs, while new funds would go into the side of the department that handles nuclear weapons development.
The Interior Department budget also faces a minor shave as compared with the EPA, suffering a near 11 percent cut, or $1.4 billion.
The Interior Department is expected to include a new proposal that would raise the ire of environmental groups by opening up portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and natural gas drilling.
