Well one area that private companies, especially tech firms involved in AI are getting involved is in the need for green energy (AI is very energy intensive) and research into carbon capture technology. The oil and gas sector are also investing in this in order to reduce their carbon footprint. For example
Then there’s also environmental remediation.
In other words, anyone (or any business) who is actually affected by it and doesn’t have the “luxury” of just playing politics with it …
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday that it would eliminate its scientific research arm and begin firing hundreds of chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, after denying for months that it intended to do so.
The decision to dismantle the E.P.A.’s Office of Research and Development had been widely expected since March, when a leaked document that called for eliminating the office was first reported by The New York Times. But until Friday, the Trump administration maintained that no final decisions had been made.
The E.P.A.’s science office provides the independent research that underpins nearly all of the agency’s policies and regulations. It has analyzed the health risks of hazardous chemicals, the impact of wildfire smoke on public health and the contamination of drinking water by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Its research has often justified stricter environmental rules, prompting pushback from chemical manufacturers and other industries.When President Trump took office, the science office had roughly 1,155 employees. But more than 325 workers have left since January after accepting “deferred resignation” offers, according to an E.P.A. spokeswoman, Molly Vaseliou.
It was not immediately clear how many of the roughly 830 remaining employees would be fired. Ms. Vaseliou said in an email that the agency had not yet initiated the large-scale layoff, known as a “reduction in force.”
In a wave of departures in recent weeks, the directors of national research programs under the Office of Research and Development all left the E.P.A. They include career employees who oversaw work on measuring contaminants in the atmosphere, responses to environmental emergencies and exposure to chemicals and particulate matter. Others who left include the deputies of those programs, as well as dozens of senior scientists, according to multiple agency officials.
After all, what’s a few more dead people when companies can improve profitability? 
If only it were a few more people…some of the regulatory loosening is going to hurt tens of thousands if not more.
Big cuts ahead for the Dept of Energy.
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE): Funded at $888 million (a 74 percent cut compared to FY 2025 levels), the request narrows EERE’s focus to early-stage R&D in geothermal, hydropower, biofuels, industrial efficiency and critical minerals; programs such as solar, wind and hydrogen are zeroed out; the request also includes $183 million for program direction and core operations at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC): Funded at $15 million with a mandate to eliminate vulnerabilities in U.S. energy supply chains, expand domestic energy production, revitalize the industrial workforce and support data-informed investment and policy decisions
Office of Science: Funded at $7.1 billion (a 14 percent cut), the Office of Science remains the largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences, supporting more than 22,000 researchers across 300 institutions and 17 national labs; the request emphasizes artificial intelligence (AI), quantum information science, fusion and critical minerals R&D
ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy): Funded at $200 million (a 57 percent cut), ARPA-E will continue supporting early-stage, high-risk energy technologies, with a focus on firm, reliable power and American energy dominance; the agency aims to scale the most promising innovations nearing commercial readiness, with targeted funding opportunities aligned with U.S. competitiveness, energy abundance and small business support
Fossil Energy (formerly Fossil Energy and Carbon Management): Funded at $595 million (a 31 percent cut), the office’s mission is reoriented toward advancing domestic oil, gas, coal and critical minerals, with a renewed focus on energy security, affordability and supply chain resilience; the proposal drops Carbon Management from the office’s title and shifts carbon capture activities toward enhanced oil and gas recovery; priorities include advanced energy systems, natural gas infrastructure, blue hydrogen and mineral production from unconventional sources.
Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER): Funded at $150 million (a 25 percent cut), CESER remains DOE’s lead for securing energy infrastructure against cyber and physical threats
Office of Electricity (OE): Funded at $193 million (a 31 percent cut), OE leads DOE’s efforts to modernize and secure the power grid; the FY 2026 request supports R&D for transmission reliability, advanced grid controls, next-generation components and the North American Energy Resilience Model; funding also enables strategic grid deployment projects in coordination with CESER, with a continued emphasis on end-to-end reliability, bidirectional flows and grid-edge resilience
Grid Deployment Office (GDO): Funded at $15 million (a 75 percent cut) to support OE programs and projects in close coordination with CESER that increase generation and transmission capacity and strengthen grid security; the office will rely on unobligated balances from prior years to continue select project activities under its Energy Assurance and Resource Adequacy initiative
Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED): The budget proposes to wind down OCED, rescinding $3.7 billion in previously obligated funding; Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced on May 30, 2025, the termination of 24 OCED projects totaling more than $3.7 billion in financial assistance, citing a lack of economic viability and misalignment with the administration’s priorities; the request provides no new discretionary funding, though $1.4 billion in remaining IIJA balances would remain; full-time staffing is reduced from more than 200 employees to 10 employees
Office of Technology Transitions: The stand-alone account for the Office of Technology Commercialization (formerly the Office of Technology Transitions) is eliminated; its mission – to expand the commercial and public impact of DOE’s research investments – will continue under the Departmental Administration account
Here is a map of colleges which are being targeted to have their grant funding cut.
The interactive map shows the name of the college, how much has already been cut and how much more is being targeted for elimination.
Funding is being terminated at schools everywhere, including schools you probably wouldn’t guess–Like the South Dakota Schools of Mines, Ferris State University (MI) Towson University (MD), Baylor University, Carnegie-Mellon University, and just about every public university you can think of.
This map may useful for students intending to pursue science/engineering so they can see if it will impact their ability to find research opportunities.
There is second map on the page that shows how much per student funding will be reduced in every state.
Nearly 4,000 NASA employees have opted to leave the space agency through the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, NASA said on Saturday.
The cuts amount to an estimated 20% of NASA’s workforce, and will reduce the agency from 18,000 to 14,000 employees, NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner said in a statement shared with NPR. The total number includes the agency’s loss of 500 other workers due to normal attrition, she said.
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/26/nx-s1-5481304/nasa-employees-deferred-resignation-program
The federal government has indefinitely suspended the the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Preventive Medicine Residency grant. This grant funds more than half of all Preventive Medicine residency programs in the country.
Medical school grads who matched into a preventive medicine residency this spring cannot be onboarded to start their training and current residents are being asked to pay for their own MPH (a requirement for board certification) that residencies previously included for free as part of their residency training.
Per the ACPM:
Suspending this funding risks not only the future of the preventive medicine workforce, but also the very goals set forth in efforts to improve preventive care and delivery under the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) vision. If the goal is to incentivize wellness and keep people out of the hospital, then U.S. graduate medical education efforts should be similarly focused on preventive medicine.
It’s very difficult to not make political comments on this thread.
Each time I see an unread post under “More bad news for science majors,” my heart sinks a little.