The Washington Post obtained a four-page memo outlining a plan to decrease the budget of a top climate science agency by 17 percent. The substantial cutting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) budget would include trimmings of research funding and data-collecting programs. It would also seek to reduce programs affecting estuary reserves, “coastal resilience,” coastal management and external research. This is worrying in a practical sense because a program supporting “coastal resilience” seeks to help coastal towns and cities protect themselves against storms and rising tides.
Specifically, the Washington Post reported last Friday that the 17 percent budgetary reduction being proposed by the Office of Budget and Management (OMB) would include major cuts to education programs, grants and research. For instance, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research might lose 26 percent of its funding and a related data division would lose 22 percent of its current budget. These cuts are just a portion of a broader reduction to the Commerce Department’s budget for the 2018 fiscal year, which begins on October 1st.
These are proposed cuts, included in a “passback document,” that will be negotiated by the White House, agencies and lawmakers in the months to come. These early proposals are part of the annual budgeting process.
Specific Cuts and Their Effects
Other proposed cuts include major reductions to the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, which disseminates large quantities of useful data for tracking the effects of climate change. This could be seen as one of the subtler ways in which the current administration seeks to reduce the availability of data to the public. Additionally, a $73 million program that distributes grants to coastal researchers would be completely eliminated. According to the passback document, these proposed cuts aim to refocus the budget on “rebuilding the military.”
Another concern is that this could negatively affect meteorologists in their ability to accurately predict weather patterns because, according to Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator under President Barack Obama, 90 percent of their data comes from the NOAA. Without sufficient means to predict the weather, the US would be far more susceptible to storm-related damage.
Removing the Influence of Climate Science
These proposed budgetary reductions are part of a larger pattern. With an executive order that requires agencies to “rescind or revise” the Waters of the United States Rule and a number of resolutions that aim to roll back environmental regulations, Democrats and activists can only hope that the influx of bills causes Congress to bottleneck.
Many of the regulations have been targeted using the Congressional Review Act, which can repeal a regulation only 60 legislative days after enactment. This means we’ll have to wait until May or June, while lawmakers scramble to reduce environmental (and other) protections. Beyond that, it seems the Trump administration will do its best to reduce the budget and personnel of environmental agencies.
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