(Washington) The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Friday to get rid of almost a quarter of its workforce within the framework of the vast budget cuts imposed by the government of the Climatosceptic President Donald Trump.
Scheduled for several months, these drastic reductions have worried environmental defenders who fear their negative impacts in a country faced with air pollution and frequent natural disasters aggravated by global warming.
Responsible for ensuring the cleanliness of air, earth and water, EPA had 16,155 employees in January, when Donald Trump was invested for his second mandate. But as part of its workforce reduction plan, this figure will fall to 12,448, a drop of 22.9 %, the agency announced.
“This reduction in the workforce will allow us to better fulfill this mission while managing the money of your taxes hardly earned in a responsible manner,” said EPA Lee Zeldin, a close to Donald Trump in a statement.
Since his return in power, Donald Trump, a notorious climatosceptic, has switched back on a background in terms of climate and environmental protection.
Under his leadership, Lee Zeldin launched multiple approaches to lighten regulations on several eternal pollutants (PFAS) or even suppress polluting restrictions from cars.
According to the EPA, the discounts announced will make it possible to achieve nearly $ 750 million in savings, the government seeking to lower the agency’s budget by more than 50 %.
The latter ensures that its services will endeavor to remedy delays in examining hundreds of chemicals and thousands of pesticides, while developing a new strategy towards PFAS.
In early July, the EPA announced the forced leave of 139 employees who signed an open letter where they accused the Trump administration of endangering the population “for the benefit of polluters”.
