The Trump administration is proposing a 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget. That would be the biggest cut of any federal agency.
Governor Dannel Malloy, speaking at a recent event at the Connecticut Science Center, said slashing the agency’s budget would have a direct impact on Connecticut residents.
"It’s air, it’s water, it’s conservation," said Malloy. "It’s an attack on who we are and what we are. And the bottom line is, this is absolutely an attack on future generations.”
Among those who spoke were Gary Yohe, professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University, who called the potential measure a dismissal of science that would be irresponsible and immoral.
"This administration has attacked climate science and it has announced its intention to abandon any initiative designed to ameliorate climate risk in any way," he said.
Yohe was a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work on climate change.
Malloy and other environmental advocates talked about specific impacts that include bacteria testing at the state’s beaches, programs to cleanup hazardous waste sites, and protection of the state’s streams, ponds, and wetlands.