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, announcing the roll back of the Endangerment Finding today. This is a decision that will cost many more lives in the coming years.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission
Global warming is already creating affordability nightmares for people across the U.S.: skyrocketing health insurance prices as ER visits mount from climate disasters and as climate-related diseases intensify; skyrocketing costs for disaster relief after homes are destroyed; skyrocketing costs for rebuilding communities devastated by extreme weather.
The rollback of the Endangerment Finding makes one thing crystal clear: Zeldin, with the support of the entire Trump administration, especially Energy Secretary Chris Wright, has declared his allegiance to oil companies and other industrial polluters. He is running an EPA that does not care at all about making America healthy again, no matter how much lip service he pays to that important goal.
Zeldin’s decision is not supported by science, which shows that the pace of global warming is accelerating faster than expected. It is not supported by public health data. It is not supported by economics. It is not supported by morality or even, simply, stewardship of our Earth. It is not supported by the very evidence we are all feeling every month, as heat waves intensify and storms are turbocharged. Zeldin’s climate denial will not stop global warming.
It is sad to see America turn its back on global leadership in cutting emissions from tailpipes and other major sources—especially when the U.S. has historically been by far the largest contributor of climate pollution in the first place. The Clean Air Act—and EPA’s commitment to cleaning up air and climate pollution—has been working for decades. We have made huge progress in getting pollution under control.
EPA must continue to tackle climate pollution. This has long been part of EPA’s work—under both Republican and Democratic administrations. No other administration, ever, in the history of the Clean Air Act, has been so destructive of EPA’s work. No other administration has ever shirked its responsibility to public health the way Zeldin is doing.
Rolling back the Endangerment Finding is just the latest example of the way Zeldin has corrupted the very mission of EPA: to protect human health and the environment. We are experiencing the damage of climate change right now, in our backyards, on our farms, across our communities. Zeldin’s actions are taking the United States backward many decades. They are morally shameful, and they endanger human health.
Zeldin’s legacy will be the suffering of our children and grandchildren in an increasingly destabilized world. His radical agenda to let polluters off the hook—and to ignore peoples’ health—must be stopped. Congress must hold Zeldin accountable with oversight hearings. Moms agree: Zeldin must go.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission