MPCA President: Trump's EPA Grant Cuts Would 'Wreak Havoc'
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota official who heads a group that represents state environmental agencies nationwide says the Trump administration's proposed cuts to Environmental Protection Agency grant programs would cripple their ability to protect air, land and water.
The Environmental Council of the States says Categorical Grants to states would take a 44.5 percent hit. Those grants support an average of 27 percent of state environmental agency budgets.
The president of that group, John Linc Stine of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, calls the cut "unworkable" and says it would "wreak havoc" across the country.
Stine says his agency now gets 11 percent of its budget from the EPA, or about $22 million annually. Minnesota spends its grants on things like producing its daily air quality index and cleaning up Superfund sites.
(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)