“Immediately we reached out to the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Craig Butler, the director of Ohio’s environmental agency. Over all, about a third of all state funding for environmental regulation is supplied by the E.P.A., according to an analysis by the Environmental Council of the States, a nonpartisan group that represents state environmental agencies. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThat funding is used to enforce federal environmental laws at the state level. If that federal funding is cut, “it is extremely unlikely that states would be able to make up the funding,” said Alexandra Dunn, the executive director of that group. If federal funding for states to enact regulations and respond to emergencies is cut, experts say, it may be hard for states to make up the difference.

Source: New York Times March 17, 2017 00:33 UTC