KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — A group of Kalamazoo area democrats and environmentalists claim that Congressman Fred Upton’s support for cuts to the EPA budget could slow efforts to clean the Kalamazoo River and the Allied Paper dumpsite and cut auto emissions.
They claim it could leave more of the responsibility to states, which are ill-equipped to respond to major oil spills or other serious environmental calamities.
At a news conference on the Boardwalk at Upjohn Park in Kalamazoo, MSU Professor Stephen Hamilton, Michigan Clean Water Action Director Mary Brady-Emerson and Kalamazoo Vice Mayor Don Cooney and others say Upton voted for the Trump plan to slash the EPA Budget.
Cooney says the timing couldn’t be worse with growing concerns and signs that climate change is real, its dangerous and its happening now.
But Upton’s staff says there has been no such vote taken and provided several news releases claiming Upton has been fighting to maintain funding for the environmental agency, the Great Lakes Initiative and fighting White House efforts to downsize the EPA.
