The EPA could possibly be the subsequent goal of the Trump Administration’s mass layoffs, though it is unclear how deep the cuts would possibly go.
As reported by The New York Occasions, President Trump stated throughout a Wednesday cupboard assembly that Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, deliberate to fireplace 65% of EPA workers, which company officers later admitted would stop the company from functioning. It is in line with the arbitrary slashing of federal employment and spending undertaken by Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
In response to the NY Occasions, Trump stated Zeldin “thinks he’ll be reducing 65 or so % of the individuals from environmental. And we’ll velocity up that course of, too, on the similar time.”
President Donald Trump (Photograph courtesy Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
Inside minutes, EPA managers stated they obtained a White Home memo telling them to arrange for mass layoffs. Trump’s 65% determine was quickly contradicted by an EPA official, who advised reporters that the President has been referring to total company finances cuts, not a 65% discount in personnel.
The EPA had 15,123 full-time workers on the finish of December, in accordance with the newest federal finances. A 65% employees reduce would imply greater than 10,000 jobs misplaced, which might hobble the company’s means to carry out not solely regulatory features however its environmental-hazard response, in accordance with Mary Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Authorities Staff.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Cybercab occasion (screenshot) – Oct. 2024
“It means 65% much less individuals out there to reply to pure disasters, that are taking place extra ceaselessly, not much less. It could imply 65% much less individuals to reply to hazardous cleanups, to do air monitoring and lead abatement,” Powell advised the Occasions, including that the administration had not knowledgeable the union of staffing cuts.
Such cuts could be according to the Trump Administration’s agenda of attacking federal forms typically, and something associated to climate-change coverage particularly.
The administration has moved to freeze funding for a nationwide EV charging community—a lot to the chagrin of automakers. California is pushing forward with its personal charger buildout regardless of that, and it might be a tactic different states might want to undertake to proceed progress.
