'Set up for failure': Trump's cuts bring climate and energy agencies to a standstill, workers say

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

06/17/2025 05:00 AM EDT


Cuts and freezes are jamming up some of the basic functions of government at agencies targeted in President Donald Trump’s rollbacks of his predecessors’ energy and environmental policies, more than a dozen federal employees told POLITICO.

Lockdowns of spending and an absence of guidance from political appointees are leaving Environmental Protection Agency scientists unable to publish their research, preventing some Energy Department officials from visiting their department’s laboratories and forcing the cancellation of disaster planning exercises at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the 13 employees, who were granted anonymity to avoid reprisals. They said the chaos has also left recipients of Biden-era energy grants in limbo as they wait for approval to continue the projects they’ve started. “We are set up for failure,” one FEMA official said.

Other affected agencies include the Interior Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which conducts crucial climate research and oversees the National Weather Service.

Rather than save taxpayers money, as Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has promised, federal workers at those five agencies said taxpayers are getting far less return from the government because work has been significantly curbed.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/17/trumps-energy-cuts-means-agencies-failure-00406526

[groundloop]

1. Weather forecasting is less accurate also....

I've noticed that our weather forecasts aren't nearly as good as they were a year ago, thanks to cuts in atmospheric data gathering.

Of course it's pretty obvious that the end game here is to privatize the National Weather Service. GQPers will proclaim "the weather service is doing a horrible job so we "need" to contract it out". Before too long we won't be able to get tornado warnings unless we pay for a weather subscription.

[progree]

2. Maybe Commerce Sec. Howard Lunatik is right, that GDP should exclude govt spending

From the OP:

federal workers at those five agencies said taxpayers are getting far less return from the government because work has been significantly curbed.

The Krasnov admin is certainly setting things up so that government contributes nothing to anything that is useful or helpful.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lunatik is one of the ones suggesting that the GDP not include government spending.

By the way, PCE inflation (the Fed's favorite measure, sometimes called "Pissy Inflation&quot , due Friday June 27, is put out by the BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis, which is a part of the Commerce Department.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. The should do the PCE on Thursday instead of Friday!!!