Debt deal, budget cuts ... and an environmental evisceration

Environmental advocates are grim today, expecting huge losses related to the national budget agreement.

Look for the blogosphere to light up with comments.

Yale 360 is reporting that the U.S. Department of Energy could see reduced funding for emerging technologies like biofuels and wind. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could see cuts for pollution monitoring efforts.

Time Magazine's Bryan Walsh has a story about the GOP's plan to gut the EPA.

Fast Company's Ariel Schwartz weighs in with more specifics. It was published last week, but it serves as a menu of things to watch for.

Natural Resources Defense Council president Frances Beineke noted on her blog, "Some House Republicans have given us cause for worry this summer, unleashing an environmental broadside through bills that would undermine foundational protections like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, as well as dozens of harmful policy riders attached to larger spending bills.

"Debt reduction is too important to get sidetracked by a conservative agenda to undo a generation of environmental progress." she said. "Instead, the place to start balancing the public ledger is by ending billions of dollars a year in wasteful incentives for mature industries like fossil fuels, nuclear power and natural resource extraction."

Stay tuned.