Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget, currently being considered by the D.C. Council, is on pace to slash 24.1% from the Department of Energy and the Environment.

The potential cuts are sounding alarms for D.C. environmentalists who fear the move will seriously damage the city’s climate.

Several groups representing clean river and energy initiatives rallied on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building on Pennsylvania Avenue on Monday to bring attention to the issue.

Ward 6 Council member Charles Allen, who chairs the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, is looking for ways to restore funding to critical environmental measures, and shares their concerns.

“It really is a devastating cut to a big part of our city’s priorities, and we’re working hard to figure out how to reverse it,” Allen said.

“(DOEE) is the only agency seeing a cut like that,” Allen added. “It’s really going to hurt our ability to deliver affordable utilities, being able to help have clean energy, be able to clean up the Anacostia River.”

He pointed to proposed changes to the city’s five-cent tax on plastic bags, which was enacted in 2009 with a promise to residents that proceeds would pay for programs improving the health of the Anacostia River.

The proposed budget now treats the bag fee as a general tax, not specifically for the Anacostia cleanup.

“The mayor’s proposal just swipes all that money. It’s just a tax, and I think it’s a broken promise to the residents,” Allen said, underscoring the move means the city can’t clean up the river.

“There are a lot of tough decisions in this budget across all of our clusters,” Bowser, who is navigating the toughest budget condition of her tenure, told WTOP on Wednesday at the opening of a Southwest upscale housing development, The Stacks, in Buzzard Point.

Congressional intervention has resulted in the city having to cut more than $1 billion over the next five years, she said. The mayor was able to accommodate an immediate $347 million cut affecting the current budget cycle without layoffs or significant reductions in services.

“The government’s utility costs have increased more than 50% in the last five years, with about the same usage,” the mayor said, adding that the spending pressures have to be addressed somehow.

“Any moves within the budget means something else has to get moved, unless the council raises taxes,” she said — something Bowser is resolved to not do.

Still, Allen said he will aggressively pursue adjustments that would restore funding to the environmental agency.

“When we talk about energy and the environment, these aren’t things that are kind of nice to have,” Allen said. “These are generational consequences we live with.”

He thinks that if the D.C. government doesn’t repair the deficits in its proposed budget, the city will see “generational and lasting damage, and we’re working hard to fix it and overturn it.”

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