Washington Watch: Trump Budget Would Harm NC Environment

NC’s budget may be bad news for the environment, but it’s clear that the Trump Administration’s proposed national budget would be even worse.

Trump’s proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency budget would slash by 30% grants to the states (including North Carolina) for the administration of Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act permits, as well as enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water Act here. (Trump is clearly one politician who learned nothing from the Flint disaster.) The total cuts to North Carolina’s most important pollution control programs would add up to more than $4 million.

EPA-funded positions in North Carolina currently include 341 workers in the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), many of whom handle the critical basic work of monitoring sewage discharges and smokestack emissions. Without these guardians of public health, we’re back to putting factory hog farms, power plants, and industrial waste dischargers on the ‘honor system.’
Former state regulator and environmental attorney Robin Smith says of the proposed cuts, “The final product may not look like this, but what’s scary is this is the starting point for the federal budget discussions.”

Citizen conservation advocates in Washington and around the nation are urging members of Congress from both parties to reject the Trump cuts to environmental protection and public health.

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