Frozen, Cut, Deregulated, and Shut Down: The Trump Administration’s Impact on Southwestern Pennsylvania
- Jo Resciniti
- 14 hours ago
- 8 min read
Under the Trump administration, funding cuts, federal workforce reductions, and deregulation efforts threaten decades of hard-won progress toward clean air and water, as well as erode long-standing systems that support public health. As the end of 2025 approaches, the federal government is shut down indefinitely, causing widespread impacts to communities across the country. With climate change disasters and fossil fuel use increasing, we’re zooming in to southwestern Pennsylvania to assess the damage.
Funding Cuts
On February 14, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it “cancelled nine contracts related to DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion], environmental justice, and more, resulting in $59,776,673.70 in taxpayer savings” ushering in an onslaught of funding freezes and grant cancellations. The abrupt end to federal support has devastated efforts to quantify industrial pollution, mitigate climate change impacts, and implement renewable energy solutions.
Allegheny County, in particular, lost millions of dollars in federal funding for stormwater infrastructure improvements and electric car chargers. Grant-funded tree planting and landscaping in Pittsburgh was cancelled.
In Beaver County, the Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, which focused on public and environmental health initiatives, workforce development, and outdoor education, was terminated revoking significant funding from area nonprofits.
Revoking federal funds and disinvesting in the communities of southwestern Pennsylvania has dire consequences for the region. Local governments and the commonwealth must make up for lost federal funds by cutting services or raising taxes. Even with increased revenue from a tax increase, many projects are still out of reach. Federal grants and loans are necessary for stormwater management projects, flood mitigation, and green infrastructure. With Pennsylvania’s own legislature currently in a stalemate over its own budget, low-income communities are especially vulnerable to exclusion from the clean energy transition and development of sustainable, resilient infrastructure. With smaller budgets, local government will have to prioritize urgent needs, putting off costly infrastructure improvements that serve long-term climate goals.
Reduction in Federal Workforce
In the years leading up to the second Trump administration, the current Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, is quoted saying the administration would defund the EPA and put civil servants “in trauma” as it sought to pare down the federal workforce and disassemble entire agencies. In addition to stripping protections from workers, Vought and the administration were clear that they also intend to demoralize the workforce to drive civil servants to quit.
Over 66,000 Pennsylvania residents are employed by the federal government.
Reductions in the federal workforce are being accomplished in phases, employing a variety of tactics. First, immediately after the inauguration, a hiring freeze was put into effect by executive order. No vacant positions could be filled, and no new positions could be created. The initial order expired in October and has been replaced by a directive for agencies to implement “strategic hiring committees” overseen by political appointees.
Then, the administration offered federal employees “deferred resignation,” which allowed them to vacate their positions and continue to receive pay and benefits until September 30, 2025. More than 150,000 federal employees accepted the deferred resignation offer. But the subsequent vacancies could not be filled due to the hiring freeze. Job functions once performed by the coworkers who opted for deferred resignation must now be carried out by those who remained on the job, further increasing their stress and workload.
Another key strategy includes reduction in force (RIF). The EPA issued a press release in July announcing a RIF for the Office of Research and Development. In the same press release, the EPA reported a reduction of 3,707 workers. An additional RIF is planned at the EPA during the ongoing government shutdown, specifically targeting the division that works with states on recycling and composting programs to reduce waste.
As a point of comparison, the EPA was understaffed prior to the Trump administration’s strategies for eroding federal agencies that support environmental health. In 2023, when the EPA workforce was around 14,000, the workers’ union lobbied Congress for funding to increase hiring and reduce the burden on existing staff. The union warned that the chronically understaffed agency “can make mistakes that have long-term human health consequences.” In addition to Vought’s drastic weakening of federal resources, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin describes his leadership of the nation’s top agency for environmental protection as “driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change" for the sake of prioritizing America’s energy dominance. Current EPA leadership is touting a workforce of 12,448 and shrinking. In fact, an analysis of the proposed EPA budget and planned workforce reductions found that the agency may lose 33% of its staff by the end of 2025.
Regulations
The EPA is currently undertaking the “biggest deregulatory action in history” by reconsidering, restructuring, or terminating 31 regulations that maintain human health by setting standards for clean air and water. Among the regulations to be altered are
wastewater regulations for the oil and gas industry,
Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal-fired power plants,
the Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards, and
regulations deemed to be “throttling” oil and gas industries.
It's not difficult to imagine the impacts deregulation of this scale may have on southwestern Pennsylvania. Once known as the “Smoky City,” the greater Pittsburgh area is still plagued with poor air quality. Our region relies on the EPA to make health-informed regulations that reduce pollution. Any deregulation, especially of air quality standards, threatens hard-fought progress that took decades to achieve. For example, the recent delay, and likely future rollback, of the Federal Methane Rule will result in unfettered air emissions from the region’s shale gas wells, including methane and its toxic co-pollutants.
This rollback of protections also comes at a time when pollution is expected to increase in southwestern Pennsylvania thanks to an uptick in fossil fuel extraction. A recent report estimates 8,400 additional shale gas wells could be drilled in Pennsylvania with a significant portion in the southwestern part of the state. Shale gas extraction also produces massive amounts of wastewater. This waste is already poorly regulated, radioactive, and a threat to human health. The current EPA deregulation framework seeks to allow fracking wastewater to be treated and reused “for good,” despite health concerns about that process.
Moreover, decreasing oversight threatens data collection that is necessary for monitoring and making future decisions. For example, data collected over the past 15 years from the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) have allowed federal and state agencies, industry, non-profit organizations, and others to assess pollution trends, including progress toward reduction, accurately. The current EPA’s efforts to dismantle the national framework for reporting emissions will hinder efforts to address the climate crisis at a national level. Though Pennsylvania uses its own emissions inventory, the setback to neighboring states’ ability to manage and reduce emissions will negatively impact southwestern Pennsylvania as the impacts of climate change accelerate.
Regulations, such as the Green House Gas Reporting Program, were carefully crafted with human health in mind. EPA rulemaking is a long process, and developing regulations that will withstand court challenges involves many hours from experienced staff. It is unclear whether Zeldin’s EPA will have the capacity to overhaul so many rules at once given ongoing and planned staffing reductions. The current administration may seek to circumvent the rulemaking process, leaving courts as the last line of defense for environmental protections. The systematic undoing of decades of progress to achieve clean air and water will result in healthcare cost increases and a loss of efficiency and productivity in the workplace.
Federal Government Shutdown
Adding turmoil to cap off an unprecedentedly chaotic year, the federal government failed to pass a budget and therefore shut down on October 1. Many federal employees have been furloughed, and the government is only able to conduct operations related to “emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.” As such, the EPA will not be issuing new grants, performing routine inspections, or issuing regulations until a funding bill is passed. When a funding agreement is reached, agency functions will resume. By then, there will be a backlog of work, resulting in significant delays.
More impactful to the daily lives of southwestern Pennsylvanians is uncertainty around funding for programs serving low-income communities including the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. 150,000 residents in Allegheny County alone receive SNAP benefits to buy food.
The federal shutdown comes at a particularly difficult time for Pennsylvania. The state budget is four months overdue with no agreement on the horizon. The state has missed payments to schools. Nonprofits and county governments are furloughing employees and making difficult budget decisions. Unpaid SNAP benefits put an additional strain on food banks which are also funded by payments from the state and federal government.
In short, the people who are most likely to bear the brunt of the government shutdown are also most likely to experience the health effects of pollution from oil and gas industries: working-class communities. They are on the frontlines of a concerted effort to weaken the social safety net and environmental protections. In other words, all of us, starting with some of the most vulnerable, are likely to experience the consequences of an administration that undermines public health initiatives.
Final Thoughts
Between increased calls for drilling, rollbacks of protections, and stalled government funding, the current situation is dire. We hear from communities that they are concerned about reliable access to food, housing, and health care, alongside our escalating anxieties over strong, health-based protections for clean air, water, and a livable climate.
The federal government is not providing adequate services to meet the needs of southwestern Pennsylvania and the rest of the country. In fact, the current administration is actively dismantling environmental regulations meant to protect public health, safety, and welfare.
New state and federal budgets will eventually be passed, restoring some programs while others remain permanently shuttered due to funding cuts. In the wake of experienced professionals being encouraged or pressured to vacate their positions, the federal workforce has suffered a setback in technical knowledge that is not likely to be resolved in the near future. What has been lost will not easily be restored.
The EPA and other federal agencies are necessary for the protection of our health in southwestern Pennsylvania, the surrounding region, and across the country. These agencies must be funded and directed to act in the interest of public health, not simply in the interest of shareholders. Strong regulations on fossil fuels and support for renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects will improve public health—reducing adverse health outcomes from pollution and bolstering our economy with a growing, clean-energy industry. That’s the future we need to demand, before it’s too late.
For a list of pantries, free fridges, food banks, and free grocery programs organized by greater Pittsburgh neighborhood or region, click here.