The rollback to end all unscientific rollbacks finally happened: Earlier this month, EPA fully turned its back on its very own mission and abandoned the Endangerment Finding. “It is impossible to imagine a morally defensible reason for Administrator Lee Zeldin’s decision to end EPA’s responsibility for cutting the climate pollution that is endangering peoples’ health and the stability of our country. And yet that is what he’s done… This is a decision that will cost many more lives in the coming years,” Moms Clean Air Force’s Co-founder and Director Dominique Browning wrote in a statement.
It’s hard to believe, but this isn’t the only gift to industry from EPA in recent months. The agency has been unleashing a steady wave of rollbacks that threaten the health of our children and the stability of our climate including allowing more mercury, soot, toxic chemicals, plastics, and harmful emissions. These relentless attacks on public health and the environment are why Moms Clean Air Force is demanding the resignation of Administrator Zeldin. From deregulating coal plants to recklessly promoting the expansion of polluting AI data centers, this EPA is prioritizing polluters over people, making America sick again.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission
Read on for a summary of some of EPA’s most harmful decisions from the last three months, each one a step backward for clean air and climate stability.
Here’s just some of what happened in December:
- Delaying crackdowns on methane emissions: Methane is a powerful climate pollutant, yet EPA is pushing back on Biden’s landmark rule to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. By allotting the industry an extra 10 months to avoid monitoring and controlling methane leaks, this delay threatens public health and climate progress.
- A holiday season gift for the chemical industry: EPA is rewriting the health risks of formaldehyde, classified as a known human carcinogen, by nearly doubling the safe exposure level. This drastic shift abandons the long-standing scientific approach that assumes even small amounts of exposure to carcinogens to be harmful and instead adopts an industry-favored model that ignores risks below a certain threshold.
Here’s just a few things that happened in January:
- Watering down phthalate protections: EPA finalized rules targeting the risk of phthalates—hormone-disrupting compounds derived from petrochemicals found in everyday plastics—but only for workers and certain environmental exposures. This ignores dangers to the general public despite growing evidence, and independent experts warn this limited focus underestimates the true health threats of phthalates, leaving consumers vulnerable.
- Weakening air pollution limits on gas plants: Nitrogen oxide (NOx) has proven health risks and has been linked to asthma, heart disease, and lung problems. Despite this, the Trump EPA finalized a rollback of NOx emission limits from new gas-burning turbines, in some cases allowing more smog forming pollution than even outdated 2006 standards.
- Rolling back protections against cross-state smog pollution: EPA proposed revoking parts of the Good Neighbor Rule, which holds upwind states accountable for smog-forming NOx pollution that harms downwind communities. This rollback ignores proven health benefits of the Good Neighbor Rule, including preventing thousands of asthma attacks and hospital visits annually. It will also expose millions of people in the United States to dangerous pollution.
And in addition to rolling back the Endangerment Finding, here’s more of what happened in February:
- Stalling on vital air quality updates: EPA missed a court-ordered deadline to inform states whether they comply with the strengthened 2024 standard for soot (a.k.a. particle pollution or PM 2.5), postponing critical protections that were projected to save thousands of lives annually. This unnecessary holdup, amid ongoing litigation and industry challenges, leaves millions uncertain about whether the air they breathe meets health standards and possibly prolongs exposure to deadly pollution.
- Propping up coal: With EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s backing, Trump signed an executive order directing the military to buy power from struggling coal plants, potentially extending the life of polluting facilities previously slated for retirement. This move, along with millions in federal funds to upgrade coal plants, marks a major setback for U.S. climate goals by reenergizing coal, which was being phased out.
- Gutting mercury protections: EPA finalized a weakened version of the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS), which have cut mercury pollution from coal plants by 86% since 2012. This disastrous rollback threatens children’s developing brains by allowing more toxic heavy metals like mercury, lead, and chromium to pollute our air, water, and food.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission