President Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda will be undermined by steep cuts to federal agencies that are said to be planned by the Trump administration, scientists, lawmakers and energy executives warned on Monday.
Pleas from numerous quarters have streamed into the inboxes of cabinet secretaries, asking them to salvage various divisions of government agencies. Federal officials face a deadline today to present their plans for another round of mass firings, and agencies that address energy and the environment are expected to be hard hit.
Experts said cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy would most severely hurt efforts to tackle climate change. However, there is little expectation that those concerns would be heeded by Trump administration officials, who either deny or downplay the threat of global warming.
Instead, opponents of the job cuts are making arguments more in line with the Trump administration’s priorities by saying the cuts threaten nuclear energy, mineral production and expanding energy access.
At the Department of Energy, for example, some of the biggest losses are expected in places like the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, which oversees several large projects, including a plan to build seven hydrogen hubs around the country. Another expected target is the Loan Program Office, which provides federal financing for clean energy.
A coalition of energy producers and trade groups representing nuclear power, data centers, and wind and solar energy — as well as direct-air-capture technology, a method of pulling planet-warming carbon dioxide out of that atmosphere — said in a letter to Chris Wright, the Energy secretary, that the cuts “would critically undermine American energy and industrial strategy.”
They noted the loan office has supported the only new nuclear construction in the country. It has also supported a major lithium mining project in Nevada (lithium is a key battery component) as well as grid upgrades in Arizona and across the Midwest to support rapidly growing electricity demand from manufacturing.
Meanwhile two dozen former commissioners, secretaries and directors of state environmental agencies issued a letter expressing “deep concern” about reports that the E.P.A. will eliminate its scientific research arm, the Office of Research and Development.
Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, has separately said he intends to cut the agency’s budget and work force by about 65 percent.
The letter makes no mention of climate change or the department’s role in providing the scientific foundation for regulations. Instead, state officials wrote to Mr. Zeldin that the cuts will hurt the ability of state agencies to do their work.
“States do not have the capacity to conduct research” at the same level as the E.P.A., state officials said. The E.P.A.’s science arm has led the way for states on everything from how to remove PFAS (a class of chemicals tied to numerous health risks) from drinking water to developing new techniques to clean up heavy metals from toxic cleanup sites.
Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee also issued letters Monday to Mr. Wright and Mr. Zeldin about the effects of what lawmakers described as “mass firings” at the agencies. “Your persistent assault on career civil servants threatens public health and will make it impossible for E.P.A. to fulfill its mission ‘to protect human health and the environment,’” Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey and the top Democrat on the committee and other lawmakers wrote to Mr. Zeldin.
Thousands of workers across the government have already resigned in recent days, including more than 1,100 people at the National Park Service, according to a person familiar with the details. Another 1,100 have resigned from the Bureau of Land Management, which oversee 245 million acres of national public land, according to another person.
Both requested anonymity to discuss details of the resignations that the administration has not yet made public.
Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.
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