President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s POLLUTION SPREE continued the last two months, with callous efforts to rescind already awarded clean energy funding, ramp up toxic air pollution, and devastate scientific rigor at EPA. It’s been the longest nine months of overwhelm, anger, and fear, but Moms are still standing up and speaking out against this administration’s unbelievable environmental attacks.
In an inspiring moment this August, 44 Moms fought back against Zeldin’s proposal to roll back the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the legal foundation of EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas pollution, joining more than 600 testifiers who opposed this misguided move at an EPA public hearing. Over 18,000 more Moms sent written comments expressing our outrage before the comment period closed earlier this week.
Our guard is still up, however. It has to be. Read on for some of the administration’s most significant actions on air pollution, climate change, and toxic chemicals these last two months—or check out our more complete list of the anti-health, anti-environment actions Trump and Zeldin have taken this year.
Here’s just some of what happened in August:
- Solar for none: At the beginning of the month, EPA announced plans to not only end its Solar for All program but claw back funds that had already been distributed. This $7 billion initiative, designed to help economically disadvantaged households and communities access affordable cleaner energy, was already making good on its promise to increase consumer energy choice and bring down costs. No longer.
- Who needs scientific integrity? Not EPA. Following guidance laid out in a Trump executive order, EPA quietly eliminated the Biden-era scientific integrity policy intended to limit political influence on the agency’s science work on August 21. Then, in September, the agency began a reorganization to put key research functions under the oversight of Administrator Zeldin, a political appointee.
- More soot, please: EPA Air Chief Aaron Szabo wants to roll back soot pollution standards finalized under the Biden administration as soon as possible. He’s announced a target date of February 2026.
And here’s just some of what happened in September:
- Looking for pollution data? Too bad: The latest horrific proposal in Zeldin’s POLLUTION SPREE is to end the 15-year-old Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which provides critical public information about climate pollution from the country’s largest emitters. If finalized, this proposal will mean we’ll no longer know the sources and scale of pollution that causes climate change, including from oil and gas facilities, landfills, and power plants—though of course the pollution will still be happening, unchecked. Join Moms in telling EPA to keep this program.
- More toxic chemicals in the air, water, and soil: In an effort to “speed innovation”—and potential toxic exposures along with it—EPA has also proposed weakening protections against new chemicals.
- Another advisory committee bites the dust: EPA abolished its fourth advisory committee of the year, disbanding the long-standing Clean Air Act Advisory Committee in order to “improve efficiency.” The panel will no longer provide its expert input on the agency’s efforts to address air pollution.