Trump budget to roll back climate research funding
Environmentalists say move would hurt global science
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump isn’t just keeping a campaign promise to roll back climate change regulations. He appears to be moving ahead to do away with the science behind the effort.
The White House has drafted a preliminary budget blueprint that would hack hundreds of millions of research dollars out of the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies tracking the effects of global warming in what would be a stark contrast to the policies under President Barack Obama.
Environmental activists say rolling back rules designed to protect health and ecology is bad enough. But gutting the fact-finding and academic analysis behind the rules poses consequences.
“If the Trump administration pulls the plug on this, the world goes dark,” said David Doniger, director of the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Among the proposed cuts the White House could unveil Thursday as part of its official budget:
science funding, including half the money for studies of the agency’s Air, Climate, and Energy Research Program. Bill Becker, executive director of the Association of Clean Air Agencies, which includes the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality as a member, was unable to release the proposal from the Trump administration but confirmed the figures.
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research funding to support climate research and the satellite programs that provide the basis for the Obama-era policies aimed at reducing the use of fossil fuels. The cut could be as much as 17 percent, according to the Washington Post.
programs coordinating the launch of satellites that monitor changes in sea level, carbon levels and air temperatures that help provide the justification for climate rules.
Such a move would be applauded by key GOP lawmakers who challenge the science behind climate change and the resulting regulations they say have stunted economic growth.
Some of those reported cuts could change based on review and comment from individual agencies. But environmental activists are not optimistic the proposal coming out next week will change from earlier drafts that make good on the president’s campaign promises to roll back “job-killing” environmental regulations.
The president said cutting such funding would save $100 billion over eight years, money that could be used “to help rebuild the vital infrastructure, including water sysfar-reaching tems, in America’s inner cities,” he said during last year’s presidential campaign. More recently, Trump has been trying to find ways to support a $54 billion increase in defense spending without raising taxes.
Environmental activists and many Democrats say Trump’s proposed cuts not only would ignore what Obama called the greatest threat to the planet but also would hamper global response because of the leading role the U.S. plays as a research engine for the international science community.
Annual federal funding for climate change research, technology, international assistance and adaptation has increased from $2.4 billion in 1993 to $11.6 billion in 2014 spread among 13 federal agencies, according to the Government Accountability Office. An additional $26.1 billion for climate change programs and activities was included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009.