How Trump’s proposed cuts to the EPA could imperil the Pittsburgh region’s environment and public health
“The Trump administration wants to gut funding for the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental advocates say the deep cuts would drastically undermine protections for public health and the environment. But to what extent? And how would these cuts affect specifically Pennsylvania?
“‘We are waiting with bated breath,’ said Allegheny County Health Department Director Karen Hacker in a recent Facebook Live interview with PublicSource. She said decreases in EPA funding would most significantly affect the department’s air quality program, which helps protect public health in the county by regulating air pollutants, permitting and policing industrial pollution sources and enforcing federal air standards. The American Lung Association’s annual ‘State of the Air’ report ranks the Pittsburgh region among the worst in the nation for certain types of pollution.
“The graphic below shows programs the Trump administration has proposed to cut funding for or to eliminate completely. The graphic specifically focuses on how those cuts would affect Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania.”