FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 17, 2017
CONTACT
Josh Tulkin, Chapter Director
240-764-5307, Josh.Tulkin@sierraclub.org
Sierra Club: Chesapeake Bay funding cut “outrageous and unnecessary”
College Park, Maryland – President Trump's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018 contains numerous drastic cuts to essential environmental programs. The budget includes a recommendation that the $73 million dollar program by the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the Chesapeake Bay be eliminated.
In response, Josh Tulkin, Director of the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter, released the following statement.
This is an outrageous and unnecessary cut that violates a longstanding, bipartisan consensus that cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay is good for our region and good for our nation. Maryland along with the rest of the region, relies on the bay as an economic driver, with the bay’s overall worth estimated at over $1 trillion dollars. According to the 2009 Fisheries Economics of the U.S. report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicated that the “seafood industry in Maryland and Virginia alone contributed $3.39 billion in sales, $890 million in income, and almost 34,000 jobs to the local economy.”
The progress being made toward protecting this critical resource for the region supports fisheries, oyster and crab populations, tourism and employment. All of these beneficiaries of the program would be at risk if these reckless cuts go through.
A full cut of this program would be absolutely devastating for the environment, employment and economy of the Chesapeake Bay region.
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About the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter: The Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club is over 16,000 members strong. We are your friends and neighbors working to build healthy, livable communities, and to conserve and protect our climate and environment. The Maryland Chapter is part of the national Sierra Club, the nation's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. For more information, visit http://www.sierraclub.org/maryland