OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt prepares to speak before Congress today about the Trump Administration’s proposed budget, local Sierra Club leaders are speaking out to highlight the damage the administration’s budget will do to Oklahoma’s health and environment.
In late May, the Trump administration proposed a 31 percent budget cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which will deeply affect the pollution clean-up and enforcement work that the agency can do.
“The mission of the EPA is to protect health and the environment, but Scott Pruitt has built his career by putting the profits of coal, oil and gas companies ahead of Oklahoma’s health and environment,” said Johnson Bridgwater, director of the Sierra Club’s Oklahoma chapter. “Pruitt’s reach now goes beyond Oklahoma, and we urge members of Congress he speaks before today to hold him accountable for the devastating budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration. America does not deserve the kind of environmental neglect that Scott Pruitt unfortunately brought onto Oklahomans.”
If Congress approves the Trump Administration budget cuts to the EPA, it will eliminate popular programs like the EPA’s Energy Star Program, which is responsible for reducing the energy used by consumer products. People across the country saved $430 billion last year from reduced electricity costs thanks to Energy Star. EPA budget cuts will also greatly reduce the workforce and capacity for the agency to clean up pollution or hold polluters accountable.
“Scott Pruitt’s priorities as EPA administrator and his support for the Trump Administration’s deep cuts to his own agency will do lasting harm to people in his home state of Oklahoma and beyond,” said Al Armendariz, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign and former EPA Region 6 Administrator. “Pruitt is setting back the clock on environmental progress in places like Oklahoma and Texas, where residents have fought so hard for even minimal protections from dangerously high levels of air and water pollution from coal, oil and gas.”
HOW EPA BUDGET CUTS WILL AFFECT OKLAHOMA:
A few examples of how Oklahoma’s air and water could suffer under EPA cuts:
Criminal and civil enforcement: Sharp cuts in the EPA’s enforcement programs could curtail its ability to police environmental offenders and impose penalties. The budget proposal reduces spending on civil and criminal enforcement by almost 60 percent, to $4 million from a combined $10 million. It also eliminates 200 jobs.
Example: Oklahoma-based Devon Energy was in settlement discussions with the federal government after EPA found in 2014 that the company was illegally discharging 80 tons of volatile organic compounds into Wyoming’s air annually. The company walked away from settlement talks after oil-and-gas friendly Administrator Scott Pruitt was confirmed. With further reduced enforcement and oversight by the EPA, companies like Devon will continue to be able to pollute without penalty.
Severely reducing the EPA’s Superfund Program: Trump’s budget proposes to cut spending on cleaning up Superfund sites by $330 million, down to $762 million. Site work would have to stop at many sites or be severely curtailed to accommodate a severe budget cut (30 percent). Cleaning up hazardous waste and contamination that has moved off-site is critical to protection of human health.
Example: Cuts to the Superfund program will impede EPA work, grants and partnerships to clean up contamination in areas like the Tar Creek Superfund site in Ottawa County, Okla. Prior to EPA’s clean-up of the former lead and zinc mining area, it found that 35 percent of children in the area had elevated levels of lead in their bloodstream.
Cutting state environmental grants by 45 percent: Cuts to state grants which fund core environmental programs means fewer state staff, less response to citizen complaints, less state monitoring of polluters and less money to respond to environmental emergencies.
Example: The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality’s annual budget is $81.6 million, with more than a third of that budget coming from federal funding that will be slashed.
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