Ohio EPA’s role to change in Trump era
As the Trump administration makes changes in Washington, The Dispatch asked Craig Butler, who has been the director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for three years, for his thoughts. Here is the conversation, which has been edited for space. agency within Ohio that’s responsible for protecting public health and the environment.
I see us as the implementer with boots on the ground. We’re doing inspections, we’re writing the permits: that’s the appropriate role for us. The role, in my view, for the federal EPA is basically for us to prove that we have a program that is sufficient and acceptable and then (for the EPA) to provide us adequate funding for the work we need to do. And then, as I say, check our work. ... What I don’t think is the appropriate role for the federal EPA is to be duplicative of the work that we do, or frankly, needing to oversee every piece of work that we do. ... Are we concerned about it? Yes. I think we need to be patient and see where the administration and the administrator may or may not suggest cuts.
... If you’re going to cut the state allocation, our budget, there’s going to be consequences to that. But we’re not even close to that point yet, to know if there are going to be cuts and where those cuts may be focused.
I’m expecting information coming out from the federal government about where they would see cuts — if they’re going to seek any — would be coming out throughout the summer. Then we would expect and hope that there would be a pretty robust conversation between all of the states and the federal EPA about how the states can manage those. I think every state is in a different position, and each state will react differently based on how much might be cut and what programs, and what other sources of revenue they may have (in order) to make up a shortfall.
One of the programs we were concerned when we saw on the list of potential cuts is the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. ... Those are funds that support not only work at Ohio EPA but across a lot of organizations that are doing work to cure some of our past environmental problems on Lake Erie. That is of particular concern. There were cuts to the Sea Grant program and (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) programs, and those are doing quality work on Lake Erie. Any particular programs at Ohio EPA? No, not necessarily. But as we get more information, that may change.
We did one conversation as a small group of states with OMB last week. And they were in listening mode. We were talking about the importance of our programs and funding. They thought it was helpful. But other than that, there’s been no follow-up yet.
First and foremost, whenever we have funding adjustments, we try to make it first based on what services we provide. Any, as a last resort, would be changes in staffing. We’ve really not had the need to do that over time. We’re pretty nimble on how we can manage our dollars so that we keep our staff fully engaged and employed. So that is, not only a last resort, but a very far-off proposition.
I would just give a sense of patience here. We’ve heard from all sides asking a lot of questions about this. They’re valid, important questions. Mine is a message of caution. It’s very early in the process. Let’s not jump to an eventual outcome that may or may not happen. We want to let the administration know we’re concerned, but I don’t want to jump out the window — so to to speak — yet because it’s very early.