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Federal budget cuts have closed an EPA office and pose significant threat to California’s clean air, water, and clean energy sources
By G. A. McNeeley
July 25, 2025 (Washington D.C.) -- On Thursday, July 10, California’s top leaders in wildfire response, water resources, natural lands and clean energy assembled to discuss budget cuts, staff reductions and more significant changes brought forward by The Trump Administration that are posing a threat to California’s environment, the LA Times reports.
California’s drive to run its electric grid entirely on wind, solar and other clean sources of energy got harder after President Donald Trump signed a sweeping new budget law. Changes in federal tax incentives could affect the feasibility of new solar and wind projects that California is counting on to provide more electricity for its citizens, according to CalMatters.
The Trump Administration’s Impact On The EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently eliminated its scientific research office, as one of The Trump Administration’s latest cuts to the federal workforce, according to USA Today.
The change, announced Friday, July 18, affects the Office of Research and Development, which provided the EPA with information to make decisions on standards for human health and the environment. The EPA will now have a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions, according to an agency news release.
Lee Zeldin, the agency’s administrator, said in a statement that “under President Trump’s leadership, EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback,” USA Today reports.
Officials said the creation of the Applied Science and Environmental Solutions Office would allow the EPA to prioritize research and science while putting it “at the forefront of rulemakings and technical assistance to states,” according to USA Today. The EPA said these organizational changes are saving nearly $750 million.
In January, the EPA had 16,155 employees, but the agency said it will now have 12,448 workers. However, it’s unclear how many of their staff will be affected by the July 18 announcement, but some employees will apparently be reassigned in the agency, according to USA Today. Also, in an email, an EPA spokesperson said the next step would be sending notices to individual employees.
The office includes biologists, chemists, epidemiologists and toxicologists. Scientists deal with emerging pollutants, including researching floods, train derailments and wildfires, according to Nicole Cantello, Legislative and Political Director for the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents EPA workers.
"EPA is hellbent on destroying the foremost environmental research organization in the world," Cantello said, according to USA Today. "That will only result in dirty air, dirty water and more health risks for the American people."
Meanwhile, House Republicans unveiled their fiscal 2026 funding legislation for The Interior Department and The EPA, proposing steep cuts for both agencies. That bill would approve about $38 billion for agencies under its purview, which is about $3 billion below the fiscal 2025 amount, according to E&E News.
The Interior Department would get about $14.8 billion, and The EPA would be funded at $7 billion, which is a 23% cut for the environment agency. However, the bill would appropriate about $9.2 billion above what the White House requested.
The Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee met on Tuesday, July 15, to mark up the bill as lawmakers race to fund the government before the September 30th deadline, according to E&E News. Congress didn’t pass final appropriations bills last year, but instead they chose to lean on continuing resolutions.
Interior and Environment Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), said in a statement that “as Congress works to rein in unnecessary spending and restore fiscal responsibility, the House Appropriations Committee remains committed to ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly and efficiently,” according to E&E News.
Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), the subcommittee ranking member, said in a statement that “House Republicans are once again pushing an agenda that accelerates the climate crisis, upends our National Parks system, and leaves local communities to fend for themselves — all while undermining the power of the Appropriations Committee and of Congress,” according to E&E News.
California Officials Warn Federal Cuts Threaten Their Environment
State officials are worried about the shifting national priorities, which includes a 10% staffing cut to The U.S. Forest Service, which is the largest federal firefighting entity that frequently works with The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to manage forests and combat blazes, according to The LA Times.
Patrick Wright, Director of the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, said many of the Forest Service’s eliminated employees were in support roles that were crucial to ensuring firefighters can do their job.
Wright said that Trump’s proposed 2026 budget would eliminate many of the Forest Service’s top scientists, which he said would negatively affect data systems, analyses and other crucial tools. He added that he’s concerned about Trump’s order to open up millions of acres of national forestland for timber production, including all 18 of California’s national forests.
There is “serious concern by Forest Service people on the ground that if we solely focus on timber, we’re going to lose our focus on protecting communities, preventing wildfire, protecting habitat and other key measures of success,” Wright said, according to The LA Times.
Karla Nemeth, Director of the California Department of Water Resources, said her agency is reeling from several changes to key components of its water supply system. This includes staff reductions at the federal U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees the Central Valley Project (a vast network of dams, reservoirs and canals that deliver water supplies across the state).
Nemeth added that The Bureau of Reclamation lost about 1,400 staff members (over a quarter of their workforce) this year, and is now facing a potential budget cut of 33%.
The state also works closely with The Bureau of Reclamation to manage flood protection in California, where several levee and dam safety projects are now in jeopardy, Nemeth added, according to The LA Times.
Armando Quintero, Director of California State Parks, said the National Park Service is facing a potential $1 billion budget cut, and they’ve already lost 24% of staff since January. More than 100 superintendent positions are currently vacant, which resulted in canceled tours, closed campgrounds, reduced hours and other effects in California’s nine national parks.
Quintero added that all 18 of California’s national forests are losing staff, and its regional office is likely to be eliminated, according to The LA Times.
Jenn Eckerle, Deputy Secretary for Oceans and Coastal Policy at the California Natural Resources Agency, said the state is facing the loss of funding for coastal protection, including nearly $870 million previously awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency‘s Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities grant program, which has been canceled.
“Obviously these actions are going to hamper California’s ability to predict, respond and adapt to climate impacts like sea level rise, ocean acidification, marine heat waves, and will lead to impacts for our coastal economies and ecosystems,” Eckerle said, according to The LA Times.
Robert Chun, Chief of Staff to The Chair of The California Energy Commission, said The Trump Administration has made moves to end long-standing tax credits for clean energy. However, they will only apply to projects placed into service by December 2027, or that start construction by July 2026.
The administration is also canceling $3.7 billion in awards managed by the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, and at least $800 million was supposed to go to California, Chun said. He also said that the office's staff has been reduced from about 250 people to 35 people.
Chun added that the administration has removed basic energy efficiency regulations that have existed for decades, and has made it harder for California to reduce pollution by revoking waivers it is granted under the Clean Air Act to enforce tailpipe emission standards. He suggested that the result of these changes is likely to be worse air quality, higher energy costs, reduced grid reliability and limited growth for new industries such as artificial intelligence.
“They can slow the transition to clean energy here and there, but they can’t stop it,” Chun said, according to The LA Times. “We shouldn’t back down from our vision of a clean energy future, or lower our expectations for what we can achieve here in California.”
California’s Wind And Solar Projects To Be Affected By Federal Taxes
Incentives championed by former President Joe Biden were rolled back, shortening the timeline for the industry to obtain tax credits. Developers of wind and solar projects now face a shorter deadline for obtaining tax credits (most now expire at the end of 2027), according to CalMatters.
In addition, the new federal rules bar companies from accessing tax credits if they rely on major components from China or other “foreign entities of concern.” Experts said this restriction could hit California’s solar and wind industry especially hard. These changes to tax credits are estimated to save the federal government about $499 billion between 2025 and 2034.
Projects can still be built without tax credits, but it puts a financial burden on their investors. In California, 11 solar projects and one onshore wind project face potential delays or cancellation, according to Atlas Public Policy’s analysis of federal data that was provided to CalMatters.
These new hurdles for solar and wind come as they are being scaled up to meet surging electricity demand nationwide, including energy-hungry data centers who are fueling the rise of artificial intelligence.
Sean Gallagher, Senior Vice President of Policy for The Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement that the industry was still “assessing what the federal tax bill means for them,” according to CalMatters. He warned that these changes could jeopardize up to 35,700 solar jobs and 25 solar manufacturing facilities in California (including existing positions and factories, as well as future projects that might never materialize).
The California Energy Commission told CalMatters that “tax credit savings are typically passed onto ratepayers through lower contracting costs. In the long term, the repeal of the tax credits will result in higher future electricity rates for customers.”
Governor Gavin Newsom said that California's grid runs on a mix of renewables (solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, biomass and hydropower) an average of seven hours a day, citing new data compiled by the California Energy Commission.
“The fourth largest economy in the world is running on more clean energy than ever before,” Newsom said in a statement, according to CalMatters. “Trump and Republicans can try all they want to take us back to the days of dirty coal but the future is cheap, abundant clean energy.”
However, industry officials say California isn’t doing enough, because they say the state has too many hurdles for building wind and solar projects and needs to offer more funding.
“For years now, too many California leaders have retreated from true clean energy leadership -- hopefully the tax bill serves as a wakeup call that their leadership on clean energy is more important now than ever,” Gallagher said, according to CalMatters.
Trump and Congress didn’t shorten the tax credit deadlines for nuclear power plants, hydroelectric facilities, battery storage and geothermal plants. Congress also dropped a provision that would have added a new excise tax on wind and solar.
However, for wind and solar, there's still a possible path to claim tax credits if construction starts within a year or if they come online by the end of 2027. In theory, those projects could be finished and connected to the grid by 2031 and still qualify, but that depends on how the Treasury Department defines what it means to “start construction,” according to Kevin Book, an energy analyst who’s based in Washington, D.C.
In addition to those wind and solar credits, the budget signed by Trump also ends tax credits for the purchase of electric cars, rooftop solar panels, home batteries, heat pumps, insulation, energy-efficient windows and doors, and more. Those changes are estimated to save about $543 billion between 2025 and 2034, according to CalMatters.
However, in a letter to Governor Newsom and other state legislative leaders that circulated on Wednesday, July 16, five trade groups representing solar, wind and energy storage companies called on the state to speed environmental reviews and project approvals, initiate new clean-energy procurement and allow more facilities to be sited on agricultural lands, according to Reuters.
"Taken together, the new federal landscape creates a serious risk of delay or cancellation for dozens of utility-scale solar and wind projects across the state, threatening jobs, reliability, and progress toward California’s clean energy targets," the letter said, according to Reuters.
The letter was signed by leaders from The Large-Scale Solar Association, The California Arm of The American Clean Power Association, The Solar Energy Industries Association, The California Wind Energy Association, and The California Energy Storage Alliance.
Sources:
https://calmatters.org/environment/2025/07/california-wind-solar-projects-face-new-federal-hurdles/
https://www.eenews.net/articles/house-releases-interior-epa-spending-bill-with-deep-cuts/
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