WASHINGTON — A proposal by the Trump administration to reorganize the Environmental Protection Agency targets divisions that house its climate change offices as well as Energy Star, a widely popular program designed to help lower energy costs for American households.
A chart of the proposed reorganization reviewed by The Times on Tuesday showed plans for vast changes to the Office of Air and Radiation, where the programs are currently held, among several other divisions. “EPA is delivering organizational improvements to the personnel structure that will directly benefit the American people and better advance the agency’s core mission, while Powering the Great American Comeback,” the agency said.
Energy Star was at risk during the first Trump administration, when the EPA last faced an exodus of scientific talent, but ultimately survived. The program sets energy efficiency guidelines for the manufacturers of household products such as refrigerators, heat pumps and dishwashers, which then display the program’s logo if they meet its standards.
Earlier Tuesday, CNN and the Washington Post reported that the proposed restructuring would specifically eliminate Energy Star.
“Trump’s plan to end the Energy Star program is a blow to American families and businesses everywhere,” Ed Markey, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said on social media in response to the news. “This program has saved $500 billion in energy costs over the past 30 years. Energy efficiency isn’t just an environmental solution — it’s an economic one.”
Plans to eliminate the program could pose political challenges to a president who ran for office, in part, on lowering energy costs. “We intend to slash prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months,” Donald Trump said on the campaign trail last year about Americans’ energy bills.
EPA staff members are undergoing a second round of deferred resignation offers, similar to buyouts, alongside their colleagues across several other government agencies. It is likely the last chance for career staff to leave willingly. A reorganization will allow for the government to implement layoffs with greater discretion.
Changes at the Office of Air and Radiation could alter or compromise other critical programs within the division, such as the agency’s efforts to monitor trends in air pollution throughout the country and provide energy resources to state, local and tribal governments, helping them improve local air quality and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
But Lee Zeldin, President Trump’s EPA administrator, said in a video released May 2 that a new office to be formed in its place is intended to work “with — not against — state, local and tribal air permitting agencies to improve processing of state implementation plans and resolving air permitting concerns.”
“We owe it to the American taxpayer to be as efficient as possible,” said Zeldin, who characterized the restructuring proposal as an effort to bring the EPA down to Reagan-era staffing levels, saving $300 million a year by 2026. “With these organizational improvements, we can assure the American people that we are dedicated to EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
The Air and Radiation division also maintains the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, the primary body that monitors vehicle emissions throughout the country and sets national fuel efficiency standards — an office that often finds itself at odds with the California Air Resources Board.
And yet, perhaps the most dramatic cuts may be to the agency’s main office devoted to understanding, tracking and combating climate change, which is housed under the same division set for a shuffle.
The restructuring, if implemented, would go further in rolling back the U.S. fight against climate change than Trump did in his first term, when his EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, cast doubt on the threats posed by a warming planet.
In April, the Trump administration fired a large group of scientists producing a major quadrennial U.S. report on climate change, called the National Climate Assessment, and moved to slash research funding at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Zeldin has previously said he plans to cut “at least” 65% of the agency’s total spending, after cutting back its travel costs and office space, and placing the majority of its Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights staff on leave.
“We will pursue efficiencies,” Zeldin said. “The American people can rest assured knowing that, with our EPA team, there will be zero tolerance for wasting even a penny of your taxpayer dollars.”