When it rains, it pours. This month, President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin kept their POLLUTION SPREE moving full force, ripping up protections from greenhouse gas emissions and tailpipe and power plant pollution. This administration is bent on prioritizing industry growth over people’s health at every turn. At this point, it’s difficult to narrow it down to the most significant actions taken on air pollution, climate change, and toxic chemicals in any given month.
Tell EPA: Hands Off Climate Pollution Limits for Power Plants
Here’s just some of what happened in July:
- Killing greenhouse gas pollution regulation as we know it: Zeldin announced a proposal to revoke the Endangerment Finding—the legal and scientific foundation of EPA’s responsibility to limit greenhouse gas pollution—and also to eliminate limits on climate pollution from vehicle tailpipes, the largest single source of planet-heating emissions in the U.S. Moms are outraged.
- Letting methane pollution skyrocket: Zeldin announced a 10-month delay of the implementation of the pathbreaking Biden era methane rule, which would have significantly curtailed climate-warming methane emissions from oil and gas operations. And he is doing this without a meaningful opportunity for public input—shameful!
- Firing independent scientists: Zeldin sent out a press release with his plan to shut down EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), which includes reassigning and firing thousands of scientists. Without ORD, the agency will lack independent research and be hamstrung when it tries to assess the health and environmental impacts of everything from air pollution to chemicals in drinking water to the hazards of wildfire smoke. This announcement was made just days after EPA suspended or placed on leave the 144 federal scientists who signed a letter criticizing the agency’s anti-science actions since January.
- Giving more coal plants a free pass to pollute: President Trump signed a series of proclamations claiming to exempt some of America’s largest industrial polluters, including chemical manufacturing facilities and coal-fired power plants, from nine federal clean air regulations. If you’re keeping track, this makes 171 facilities given a free pass to emit hazardous air pollutants that cause cancer and other serious diseases this year—but not if environmental groups have anything to do with it. A coalition of 12 groups have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging these exemptions.
- Looking the other way on AI data center pollution: Zeldin has decided to relax Clean Air Act permitting requirements for AI data centers, opening the doors to unrestricted growth in a notoriously energy-intensive sector and bringing moth-balled dirty power plants back online. Meanwhile, air pollution associated with AI is already expected to result in as many as 1,300 premature deaths per year by 2030. How much will this number soar with weakened regulations?
Tell EPA: Hands Off Climate Pollution Limits for Power Plants