The article highlights significant cuts at the EPA, targeting diversity and environmental justice initiatives as wasteful. President of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1236, Bethany Dreyfus, conveyed the impact of these cuts on employees, fearing job losses. The agency has canceled substantial funding, including $20 billion in climate grants previously approved by the Biden administration, which has strained relations with climate groups. EPA officials, including Administrator Lee Zeldin, claim these programs waste resources while emphasizing a need to refocus on direct environmental remediation.
"Once we are gone, the work that we do for the American people is gone, and none of us wants that work to stop," said Bethany Dreyfus, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1236, which represents many of the at-risk EPA employees in San Francisco.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has said that environmental justice has been used as an 'excuse to fund left-wing activists instead of actually spending those dollars to directly remediate environmental issues for those communities.'
In February, EPA officials terminated $20 billion in climate grants issued by the Biden administration. The money was meant to finance clean energy and environmental projects through a so-called green bank.
Dreyfus said 'all the workers who do environmental justice' were 'basically given layoff notices letting them know that very soon they will be told that there's no work for them at the EPA anymore.'
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