istockphoto.com/Gromit702
Step two in the Trump plan to make the world safe for polluters is to destroy the institutions that America –- and the world –- have built to protect our environment. Trump’s repudiation of the Paris Agreement announced this policy to the world, but the attacks are continuing on multiple fronts.
Closer to home: A revoked regulation can eventually be reissued –- but not if there is no one left to do the work. During the campaign, President Trump said he would abolish EPA or he could “leave a little bit.” Through personnel appointments, funding cuts, and other policies, he is now carrying out this goal.
President Trump has repeatedly nominated agency heads and deputies who oppose the mission –- or even existence –- of their agencies. Rick Perry called for abolishing the Department of Energy before becoming Secretary of Energy. Pruitt not only sued EPA 14 separate times before becoming its administrator, he also agreed with a radio host’s suggestion that he was “a guy who wanted to get rid of the EPA –- dismantle it.” The nominee to head up the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, which regulates surface coal mining, is J. Steven Gardner –- a coal consultant who has accused OSMRE of waging a “war on coal” and called its rule to regulate mountaintop mining as “one of the most disingenuous and dishonest efforts put forward by a government agency.”
Slashing funding for both federal and state environmental regulators is another highly effective way to weaken their enforcement capacity. The Trump administration’s proposed budget for FY2018 cuts the EPA’s funding by almost a third overall, while eliminating a quarter of the funding for enforcement. This isn’t about shifting work to the states, which rely on federal grants for over 25 percent of their operating budgets, on average. The Trump budget cuts states’ grants even further -– by more than 50 percent (excluding local water infrastructure revolving funds).
Worse, the Trump administration has specifically targeted the heart of our environmental institutions –- the people who dedicate their lives to protecting public health and the environment. Funding can eventually be restored, but rebuilding an institution takes far longer.
The EPA budget would eliminate one out of every four EPA employees in 2018. Seven hundred have already left, and thanks to an ongoing hiring freeze they are not being replaced. Secretary Zinke has targeted senior nonpolitical managers at the Interior Department, forcing them to take new jobs, sometimes in another state, that they may be neither interested in nor qualified for. Reportedly, Zinke is planning further shuffling of senior nonpolitical management in 2018, and all federal agencies have been forced to prepare secret “workforce reduction plans.”
In addition to threatening their livelihoods, Trump administration officials mistreat and publicly denigrate the people who work to protect our environment. In describing his 70,000 employees at the Department of Interior on September 25, Secretary Zinke stated, “I got 30 percent of the crew that's not loyal to the flag.” Reportedly, Pruitt frequently overrules the EPA’s career staff, excludes them from his meetings, and, when they are included, bans notetaking and cell phones.
Depressing morale is a real and effective technique to reduce productivity and results. Three more years of Trump pose an even more serious threat.