U.S. President Donald J. Trump has taken concrete actions to cut environmental subsidies and is set to lay off thousands of employees in major federal environmental protection agencies. This raises uncertainty about the short, medium, and long-term consequences for the protection of natural resources in one of the world’s most economically and politically powerful countries.
Puerto Rico—one of its unincorporated territories since 1898—has experienced a similar breakdown in its main state environmental protection agencies over the past 15 years.
The consolidation of government agencies, the dismissal of public employees, and the increasing difficulty for communities to challenge administrative decisions made by government agencies have all weakened environmental protections in the Caribbean archipelago, according to lawyers, consultants, planners, and official documents reviewed by Climate Tracker for this story.
Experts say that the decisions made by the new U.S. government resemble what has happened in Puerto Rico over the past 15 years as a result of the fiscal and economic crisis.
For Emmanuel Maldonado-González, an environmental sociologist and federal policy consultant, the crisis of environmental agencies in Puerto Rico is a reflection of what could potentially unfold in the United States.
“We will see more environmental crimes under this reality,” Maldonado-González responded when asked about the repercussions of the federal government’s decisions regarding environmental agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), among others.
“Natural resources will be completely deregulated,” he added.
The political landscape in the United States has generated uncertainty among various organizations, particularly those focused on environmental issues. One example is Hispanic Federation, an organization that supports approximately 150 other nonprofit organizations across the United States by providing funding and human resources training to help strengthen their capacity to apply for federal grants aimed at funding – among others – environmental initiatives.
However, the president and CEO of Hispanic Federation, Frankie Miranda, pointed out that, like other allied community groups, they have experienced a high degree of uncertainty due to the recent freeze on federal funds, especially those allocated for climate change and climate justice projects, as well as the massive layoffs of federal employees in environmental agencies.
“The last five weeks have been devastating for nonprofit organizations,” said Miranda.
The president warned that both his organization and the entities it supports could lose more than $5 million over the next five years, funds that directly impact the communities they serve. Miranda told his concern that, in the event of a large-scale natural disaster, a harmful chain reaction could occur for the most vulnerable communities: primary federal response agencies would be unable to act due to a lack of personnel, and organizations like his would be unable to help due to the shortage of financial resources.
Employees laid off due to “fiscal emergency”
The dismissal of around dozens of thousands public employees across Puerto Rico government agencies following the enactment of Law 7 in 2009—declaring a State of Fiscal Emergency under then-Governor Luis Fortuño Burset—had a direct impact on the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA), according to Luis García Pelatti, former president of Puerto Rico’s Planning Board, which regulates land use in the island.
The DRNA was established as an agency in 1972 to protect Puerto Rico’s natural resources following the approval of its organic law.
García Pelatti indicated that Law 7 disproportionately affected the DRNA because it led to the elimination of specialized employees who were difficult to replace.
The former Planning Board president also noted that government-sponsored retirement incentives—such as the Voluntary Retirement Program of 2017—further accelerated the agency’s loss of experienced employees in the following years.
“If Elon Musk were in Puerto Rico, he would say: ‘Wow, Puerto Rico! This is what I want! I want to cut the government in half!'” García Pelatti remarked, referring to the billionaire whom the U.S. president appointed to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), essentially to downsize the federal government.
“I don’t know if many countries have cut their public workforce in half,” he added.
For example, Puerto Rico’s DRNA has specialized divisions responsible for monitoring and controlling air quality, but some of these, such as the Toxic Substances Division, have no employees, according to government documents.
Other reviewed documents also confirm that the agency itself has recognized the lack of employees as one of the main obstacles to its operation.
Former DRNA Deputy Secretary Roberto Méndez publicly explained last year that the agency struggled to hire new personnel due to non competitive salaries compared to the private sector. Additionally, it faced retention difficulties, as trained employees were often recruited by federal agencies.
“The push for a smaller government led to a loss of employees,” García Pelatti lamented.
Consolidating agencies to “shrink” the government
Two terms after the approval of Law 7 in 2009, former Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevares signed Law 171 in 2018 to reorganize the DRNA.
With the goal of reducing the size of Puerto Rico’s government, the Environmental Quality Board, the Solid Waste Authority, and the National Parks Program were consolidated under the DRNA. In practice, this meant that the three entities came under the agency’s umbrella following the approval of Law 171 in 2018, García Pelatti explained.
However, the consolidation has been ineffective to date because the necessary funding was not allocated to support its full implementation, the planner argued.
“We merged them because we wanted to be efficient, but we didn’t give them the [financial] resources they needed,” García Pelatti lamented.
Agency documents reviewed by Climate Tracker indicate that the proposed agency consolidation has not been fully completed seven years after its approval. Today, the lack of equipment and records to fulfill their functions has become a challenge, as the lack of legal identity and an administrative structure prevents them from quickly resolving their problems.
“The DRNA has not finalized the consolidation process proposed in the Reorganization Plan,” confirms another agency document.
Law 141 of 2018, which reorganized the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC), also merged it with the Puerto Rico Planning Board—similar to what happened with the DRNA. This fusion of the DDEC with the Planning Board creates a conflict of interest, as the latter regulates land use, while the DDEC oversees the agency responsible for issuing permits in Puerto Rico: the Office of Management and Permits (OGPe).
More difficult to challenge government decisions
Over the past 15 years, public hearings to challenge administrative decisions on environmental matters have decreased following the approval of the Permit Reform Act of 2009, according to Verónica González Rodríguez, litigation coordinator at Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico and former president of the Environmental Law and Natural Resources Commission of the Puerto Rico Bar Association. This measure was compounded by a 2010 ruling by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court in the case of Fundación Surfrider v. ARPE, which made it even more difficult for environmental organizations and communities to establish legal standing to intervene in environmental disputes.
The environmental attorney explained that the 2009 Permit Reform Act replaced the now-defunct Regulation and Permits Administration (ARPE) with the new OGPe. This change made public hearings for challenging permit-related decisions discretionary rather than mandatory.
“From that point on, the processes became more complex and harder to influence,” González Rodríguez explained.
The ruling in Fundación Surfrider v. ARPE made it even more difficult for organizations and communities to prove in court that they had legal standing to challenge a decision—meaning they had to demonstrate a direct impact from the decision.
“It became really difficult to prove that communities would actually suffer harm from government decisions,” she lamented.
The obstacles created by these changes are further compounded by the high costs of legal proceedings associated with administrative judicial challenges, particularly for underrepresented and economically disadvantaged communities in Puerto Rico, González Rodríguez explained.
Similar political visions
Ana Navarro Rodríguez, the former coastal ecosystems specialist for the Sea Grant program at the University of Puerto Rico’s Mayagüez campus, stated that the Government of Puerto Rico has taken away financial resources, equipment, and personnel from the DRNA to demoralize its remaining employees and affect its public perception among taxpayers.
“This [dismantling] was premeditated, not random,” Navarro Rodríguez said.
The coastal ecosystems specialist denounced that the measures taken against the DRNA have hindered the ability of employees who survived retirement windows and layoffs within the agency to fulfill their responsibilities, despite their interest. Navarro has observed the same pattern in the United States.
“That is the neoliberal agenda: to reduce government,” the specialist emphasized. “Choosing lying presidents and secretaries also,” added.
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This story was published with the support of the Caribbean Climate Justice Journalism Fellowship, which is a joint venture between Climate Tracker Caribbean and Open Society Foundations.
