Washington – A Trump administration proposal to reorganize the Environmental Protection Agency is aimed at divisions that house its climate change offices, as well as Energy Star, a widely popular program designed to help the lowest energy costs for US homes.
A table of the proposed reorganization reviewed by The Times on Tuesday showed plans for great changes in the air and radiation office, where the programs are currently celebrated, among several other divisions. “The EPA is delivering organizational improvements to the structure of the personnel that will directly benefit the American people and move better in the main mission of the agency, while driving the great American return,” the agency said.
Energy Star was at risk during Trump's first administration, when the EPA last faced an exodus of scientific talent, but finally survived. The program establishes energy efficiency guidelines for domestic products, such as refrigerators, heat pumps and dishwasher, which then show the program logo if they meet their standards.
On early Tuesday, CNN and the Washington Post 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 companies everywhere,” said Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democratic senator, on social networks in response to the news. “This program has saved $ 500 billion in energy costs in the last 30 years. Energy efficiency is not just an environmental solution, it is economical.”
The plans to eliminate the program could raise political challenges for a president who run for a position, in part, to reduce energy costs. “We intend to reduce prices by half within 12 months, with a maximum of 18 months,” said Donald Trump in the campaign last year about the energy bills of Americans.
EPA staff members are experiencing a second round of deferred resignation offers, similar to purchases, along with their colleagues in several other government agencies. It is likely that it is the last opportunity for career staff to voluntarily. A reorganization will allow government to implement layoffs with greater discretion.
Changes in the air and radiation office could alter or compromise other critical programs within the division, such as the efforts of the agency to monitor trends in air pollution throughout the country and provide energy resources to state, local and tribal governments, helping them to improve local air quality and low greenhouse gas emissions.
But Lee Zeldin, administrator of the EPA of President Trump, said in a video published on May 2 that a new office that will be formed in its place is intended to work “with, not against, the agencies of state, local and tribal aerial permits to improve the processing of state implementation plans and resolve the concerns of air permits.”
The Energy Star logo is shown in a freezer box.
(Joshua A. Bickel / Associated Press)
“We owe the American taxpayer to be as efficient as possible,” said Zeldin, who characterized the restructuring proposal as an effort to reduce EPA to the personnel levels of the Reagan era, saving $ 300 million a year for 2026. “With these organizational improvements, we can ensure that the US people that we are dedicated to the central mission of the EPA to protect human health and the environment.”
The air and radiation division also maintains the EPA air transport and air quality office, the main agency that monitors vehicle emissions throughout the country and establishes national fuel efficiency standards, an office that is often disagree with the Air Resources Board of California.
And yet, perhaps the most dramatic cuts can be for the main office of the agency dedicated to understanding, monitoring and combination of climate change, which is under the same division established for a deck.
The restructuring, if implemented, would go further in the struggle of the United States against climate change than Trump in his first mandate, when his EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, threw doubts about the threats raised by a heating planet.
In April, the Trump administration fired a large group of scientists who produce an important quadriennial report from the United States on climate change, called national climate evaluation and moved to research funds in the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration.
The EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House last week.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
Zeldin has said previously that he plans to reduce “at least” 65% of the agency's total expenditure, after reducing their travel and office space costs, and placing the majority of its Environmental Justice Office and External Civil Rights Personnel licensed.
“We will continue efficiencies,” said Zeldin. “The American people may be sure knowing that, with our EPA team, there will be zero tolerance to waste even a penny of their taxpayers.”
