Trump budget-cutting to target California coastal and bay protection

The Trump Administration’s budget-cutting plans reportedly include eliminating funding for restoration and protection of the San Francisco Bay, and programs that help California coastal communities prepare for climate-related threats.

The administration has proposed slashing budgets of nearly every federal agency, but protections for the environment appear to be especially hard hit.

The Washington Post reported that the proposed budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is to be cut by 17 percent, with sharp decreases in programs that pertain to climate science and adaptation to its effects. If the cuts are instituted, the California Coastal Commission could stand to lose about 10 percent of its overall budget, or about $2 million, according to agency spokeswoman Noaki Schwartz.

The grant programs are critical in assisting local governments to fund projects that prepare coastal towns to withstand damage from severe storms and sea level rise.

Among the programs targetted, according to the document, are NOAA’s Coastal Zone Management grants and Regional Coastal Resilience grants, Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency grants, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, and the Sea Grant program.

The preliminary budget for the Environmental Protection Agency calls for the elimination of the $4.8 million San Francisco Bay program, which funds wetlands restoration and beefing up protection of the shoreline, at risk for sea level rise. The proposed cuts, reported by Reuters, would need the approval of Congress.

The San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund was established in 2008. That EPA grant program has allocated nearly $45 million to pay for projects to restore wetlands, improve water quality and reduce polluted runoff.

Trump has characterized the EPA as regulation-happy, complaining the agency uses “totalitarian tactics” that restrict industry and cost Americans jobs.