In yet another harsh blow to the environment, Trump released his fiscal 2019 budget, which proposes a 23 percent spending cut—and 2,000 fewer jobs—at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It scrubs climate change from the agenda altogether, funds oil and coal production at the expense of clean energy, skimps on scientific research, and abandons key global climate change initiatives. Dozens of programs were cut or drastically defunded, including grants for water infrastructure projects on indigenous lands and restoration efforts in the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. As in the $200 billion infrastructure plan released the same day, Trump also wants to fast-track environmental reviews. But the spending proposal is just that—a proposal; the final budget will emerge only after heated debate in Congress, where many of Trump's plans are likely to encounter stiff opposition.
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Expert BlogRhea Suh
The $4.4 trillion proposal slashes environmental and health protections, ignores climate change, and sacrifices our public lands and waters to fossil fuel companies—all while making the national debt soar.
Expert BlogBrendan Guy
Trump’s budget not only abandons America’s leadership on the global stage in combatting one of the most urgent challenges facing humanity, but abandons our children at home to the mounting dangers of a changing climate.
ExplainerPuerto Rico, New York City, United States, ClevelandBrian Palmer
Let’s not forget what America looked like before we had the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Our rivers caught on fire, our air was full of smog, and it stank (literally).
Expert BlogNathanael Greene
Throughout 2017, when it comes to wind and solar, the Trump administration has been doing its best Grinch impersonation—he and his team seem to want to be the executive branch that stole our clean energy future.