Documents obtained by The National Association of Clean Air Agencies from an anonymous source have revealed President Donald Trump’s plans to make massive budget and personnel cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. This news comes amidst the controversy stirred up by a statement made by incoming EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, having declared that human activity is not a contributor to climate change.

The proposed cuts themselves would entail slashing the agency’s already tight $8.1-billion budget by 25 percent, and cut its 15,376-member workforce by 20 percent. The EPA’s budget and manpower has already been pared back to late-1980s levels, prompting concern over whether or not the agency would be able to effectively function.
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On January 30, Tesla Motors announced the opening of a massive battery storage facility in California, one of three such facilities constructed under what is being called "The Powerpack project", in partnership with electrical utility provider Southern California Edison (SCE). With the addition of the two other facilities, being built by AES Corp. and Altagas Ltd., the three plants will amount to 15 percent of the world’s battery-storage capacity installed last year.

The intent of assembling such a massive amount of electrical storage is to allow electrical utility companies to avoid having to fall back on fossil fuels to generate power during times of peak demand, a necessary step for the successful transition to more carbon-friendly energy sources.
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