"Cut, as in budget, Flowers"
Illinois EPA declined to comment on the looming budget reductions.
Congress appears unlikely to strike deal that would avoid the mandatory spending cuts totaling $85 billion, to say nothing of the second, albeit much smaller, cuts scheduled for March 27. The cuts are meant to help close a $4 trillion budget deficit.
Nationwide environmental programs will take a big hit. The National Science Foundation will issue almost 1,000 fewer research grants, and several thousand research personnel could lose their jobs as a result of cuts to The National Institutes of Health. Many national parks will face partial or full closures.
The sequester would slow down oil and gas permitting, due to cutbacks at the Department of the Interior and other agencies with a hand in that process. Permitting for solar and wind power plants on federal lands could also slow down.
The cuts would affect energy efficiency, too, perhaps counting 1,200 home weatherization professionals among those laid off as a result of the sequester.