"At a glance, U.S. EPA's plan to cut an $11.5 million grant program in an effort to meet the sequestration mandate doesn't look like much given the agency's $8.5 billion budget. But that's a lot of money to state and local air regulators who have been counting on it."

'In addition to all of the cuts the states have sustained the last couple of years because of horrific economic conditions at the local level, we are now facing a double whammy of having cuts in federal grants to states on top of those already cut state and local programs,' said Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, or NACAA."

Jean Chemnick reports for Greenwire April 24, 2013. [2]