The President’s Budget: A Call to Action

The following message was sent, on March 16, by Dean Indy Burke to the F&ES community after President Trump released his preliminary 2018 budget proposal.

All:

Today, the U.S. President’s budget was released. It focuses squarely on cutting environmental science (EPA office of science by half, DOE, by 5.6 percent,) and reducing all regulation focused on climate change. It would eliminate EPA programs such as Energy Star, air pollution grants, endocrine disrupter screening, and others. My understanding is that the entire EPA program on environmental justice will be cut. The budget cuts to NOAA and NASA are deep, and I don’t know yet about NSF. It eliminates State Department initiatives on climate change, the Green Climate Fund, and Climate Investment funds. It cuts all projects related to cost-sharing for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and alternative energy. The proposed budget also eliminates the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As we craft our new vision and mission statement, one thing is abundantly clear: we are unified by our dedication to the environment, to sustainability, to human health and environmental justice. We are leaders in advancing a sustainable environment — through our scholarship and teaching of future leaders, and through practice. The administration’s budget undermines all that we stand for.

The budget passes to Congress the responsibility of protecting our environment.

I encourage all of you to fully engage in our democracy at this moment. I attach two guides below from different sources about how to most effectively reach out to your representatives and to the President’s office. It is a critical time.

Indy

Dr. Indy Burke
Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Yale University