The Trump administration’s proposal to restructure the Environmental Protection Agency targets sectors that house climate change offices and widely popular programs designed to reduce energy costs for American households.
The proposed reorganization chart reviewed by The Times on Tuesday showed plans for a major change to the Aviation and Radiation Department, where the program is currently being held, among several other departments. “The EPA provides organizational improvements to the HR structure that directly benefits the American people and promotes a great American comeback while also advancing the central mission of the agency,” the agency said.
The Energy Star was when the EPA was the last time he faced the departure of scientific talent, but ultimately survived. The program sets energy efficiency guidelines for manufacturers of household products such as refrigerators, heat pumps, dishwashers, and displays the program’s logo if they meet the criteria.
Earlier on Tuesday, it reported that the proposed restructuring would specifically eliminate the energy star.
“Trump’s plan to end the Energy Star program is a blow to American families and businesses everywhere,” according to the news, Massachusetts’ democratic senator Ed Markey. “The program has saved $500 billion in energy costs over the last 30 years. Energy efficiency is more than just an environmental solution. It’s an economic solution.”
A plan to eliminate the program could pose a political challenge to a president who has been appointed on promise. “We intend to cut prices in half within 12 months, within 18 months,” Donald Trump said last year in the campaign trajectory of the American Energy Bill.
EPA staff, along with colleagues from several other government agencies, have received a second round of postponed resignation offers, as well as shopping. Perhaps it’s the last chance that career staff will be happy to leave. The reorganization allows the government to implement layoffs at greater discretion.
Changes in the Aviation and Radiation Department could change or compromise other critical programs within the sector, such as energy resources that will provide energy resources to state, local and tribal governments and help improve local air quality and greenhouse gas emissions.
But President Trump’s EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a video released Friday that the new office, which will be formed, is intended to be “in order for state, local and tribal air forces to work to improve handling of national implementation plans and to resolve concerns.”
“We owe American taxpayers as being as efficient as possible,” Zeldin said. He reduced the EPA to the Reagan-era staffing level and characterized it as an effort to save $300 million a year by 2026. “These organizations can ensure that Americans are dedicated to the EPA’s central mission to protect the environment. ”
The Air and Radiation Division also maintains the EPA’s Department of Transport and Air Quality. It is the leading organization that monitors vehicle emissions nationwide and sets national fuel efficiency standards.
Still, perhaps the most dramatic reduction may be for the main office of agencies dedicated to understanding, tracking and fighting climate change, which is under the same set of departments for shuffling.
If implemented, the restructuring would go further with EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler repeating the US fight against climate change than Trump did in his first term.
In April, the Trump administration fired a large group of scientists who produced a massive US report on climate change called the National Climate Assessment, significantly cutting funds for research in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Zeldin says it plans to “at least” cut 65% of the agency’s total spending after cutting travel and office space and placing a large portion of the environmental justice office and external civil rights staff on vacation.
“We pursue efficiency,” Zeldin said. “Americans can be at ease with the EPA team to know that there is zero tolerance in wasting taxpayer dollars.”
