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The Trump administration has frozen all of the Environmental Protection Agency's grants and contracts, ProPublica and The Huffington Post reported late Monday night.
EPA staff was also told not to discuss the freeze with anyone outside the agency.
According to an email obtained by ProPublica, an EPA contract officer told a storm water management employee that, “Right now we are in a holding pattern. The new EPA administration has asked that all contract and grant awards be temporarily suspended, effective immediately.”
In 2013, the most recent year on record, the EPA awarded more than $11 billion in contracts and grants that fund research, education, environmental testing, and remediation of former industrial sites across the country. The money is given to everyone from small non-profits to state governments who apply for the funding.
Myron Ebell, Trump's appointee who oversaw the transition work at the agency and a climate change denier, confirmed the freeze in an interview with ProPublica, but claimed that it was not unprecedented.
“They’re trying to freeze things to make sure nothing happens they don’t want to have happen,” Ebell told ProPublica. “This may be a little wider than some previous administrations, but it’s very similar to what others have done.”
Trump’s pick to head the EPA, Scott Pruitt, has described himself as “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.”
EPA officials have not yet responded to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
Earlier on Monday, reports surfaced that the Trump administration hopes to halt EPA funding of environmental science research and add more industry scientists to its advisory panels.
LINK: Trump Picks Oil And Gas Ally For Environment Post
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