April 22, 2011 03:55 PM UTC

More Cuts to the EPA's Could Prove to be Dangerous

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• by: NScott

The recent budget resolution in Washington is drawing up arguments and controversy in a number of different areas. One issue that is rather disturbing involves the choice to further cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. Constant pressure from republicans has seemed to force the hand in adding even more and more cuts to the EPA’s budget and that pressure will likely continue into the near future. The continued push to cut the EPA’s budget resources could end up taking away programs that are vital towards keeping environmentally related health risks to a minimum.

Last week’s resolution to the budget ended up calling for close to a 16 percent cut for the EPA. The GOP had been pushing for nearly a 30 percent cut throughout the early months of 2011. Even though the resolution didn’t go all the way to the cut the GOP was looking for, it’s alarming that the cut was increased from 10 to 16 percent in the light of pressures from businesses and republican representatives.

This continued pressure could cause major problems for some of the EPA’s most important initiatives in the future. During the recent resolution, the public water programs took a cutback. Some of the EPA’s work with public water in fighting contamination is very valuable to the people of America. Before, they were able to monitor public water sources, local and state officials, and oversee that contamination be as low as possible.

With the continued push from republican representatives, we could stand to lose some of the major initiatives that help keep us safe from environmental toxins. The Clean Air Act has already been under major scrutiny for the beginning months of the year. The republicans have introduced the Energy Tax Prevention Act which would further damage it if passed through. EPA representatives see the reduction of power in the Clean Air Act as frightening mostly because of carbon and gas emissions. Increased pollution could be at the end of the tunnel if the Clean Air Act continues to be reduced.

Some other programs that effect health from the EPA could also stand to be pushed out in the wake of budget cuts and new bills. These include things like asbestos removal and cutting down on cases of mesothelioma all over America. Further pushes to cut down the EPA budget would likely start to have an effect on a program such as asbestos abatement. This would be particularly dangerous for the American people, seeing as the EPA does hours upon hours of work having asbestos removed every year. In some cases asbestos abatement can be life saving, seeing as mesothelioma life expectancy is only usually a year on average. There must be an end in sight to the push to have programs and the budget of the EPA cut, that way health problems don’t arise.

Whatever the future holds, the last three months have not shown a great forecast for the EPA. It’s likely that they will continue to be hounded by businesses and republicans looking out for their own revenue purposes. At the end of the day, the safety, environment, and health of Americans is the main priority of the EPA and this must be noted when further ideas to cut their resources come about in the future.