In what he described as the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history,” the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a sweeping rollback of key environmental regulations on Wednesday.
The changes target rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change policies, and electric vehicle regulations.
“We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin wrote in an essay.
If finalized after a lengthy public review process, the Trump administration’s deregulatory efforts would eliminate trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and “hidden taxes,” Zeldin claimed.
He argued that these changes would lower the cost of living for American families by reducing expenses associated with purchasing vehicles, heating homes, and running businesses.
“Our actions will also reignite American manufacturing, spreading economic benefits to communities,” he wrote. “Energy dominance stands at the center of America’s resurgence.”
In total, Zeldin said he is rolling back 31 environmental rules, including a key scientific determination that has served as the foundation for U.S. climate policy.
He and President Donald Trump plan to rewrite the EPA’s 2009 “endangerment finding,” which established that planet-warming greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare.
This Obama-era ruling under the Clean Air Act has been the legal basis for various climate regulations, including those targeting emissions from motor vehicles, power plants, and other pollution sources.
Environmental advocates and climate scientists regard the endangerment finding as a cornerstone of U.S. environmental law and argue that any attempt to overturn it is unlikely to succeed.
“In the face of overwhelming science, it’s impossible to think that the EPA could develop a contradictory finding that would stand up in court,” said David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
As part of this broad deregulation effort, Zeldin announced that the EPA would revise a rule limiting air pollution from fossil-fuel power plants, along with another regulation restricting emissions from cars and trucks. However, Zeldin and Trump have inaccurately characterized the latter as an electric vehicle “mandate.”
The Biden administration had previously stated that these power plant regulations were designed to curb pollution and improve public health while ensuring the long-term stability of the nation’s electricity supply.
Biden, who prioritized climate action during his presidency, had pointed to the vehicle emissions rule as a crucial step in meeting his goal of making half of all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. zero-emission by 2030.
The EPA also intends to weaken regulations on industrial emissions of mercury and other air toxins, soot pollution, and the “good neighbor” rule, which was designed to prevent smokestack emissions from affecting downwind communities. Additionally, the agency is targeting clean water laws that provide federal protections for rivers, streams, and wetlands.
None of these changes will take effect immediately, as most require an extensive rulemaking process. Environmental groups have vowed to fight the rollbacks, with one organization warning that they could result in “the greatest increase in pollution in decades.”
Amanda Leland, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund, denounced the move as an “unlawful attack on the public health of the American people.”
The EPA is also eliminating its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs while shutting down parts of the agency dedicated to environmental justice, according to Zeldin.
EPA Chief (Photo: Getty Images)
These initiatives were originally intended to address pollution issues in communities that bear a disproportionate burden of industrial contamination, often low-income and predominantly Black or Hispanic areas.
“This isn’t about abandoning environmental protection — it’s about achieving it through innovation and not strangulation,” Zeldin wrote.
“By reconsidering rules that throttled oil and gas production and unfairly targeted coal-fired power plants, we are ensuring that American energy remains clean, affordable, and reliable.”
Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, called the EPA’s actions “just the latest form of Republican climate denial.”
He argued that while conservatives can no longer deny that climate change is happening, they are now attempting to downplay its risks, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that it remains one of the greatest threats facing humanity.
The directive to reevaluate the endangerment finding and other regulations aligns with recommendations from Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint for Trump’s second term. Russell Vought, former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and co-author of Project 2025, defended the decision, stating that EPA regulations on climate “affect the entire national economy — jobs, wages, and family budgets.”
However, environmental groups pushed back forcefully.
“The Trump administration’s ignorance is trumped only by its malice toward the planet,” said Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Come hell and high water, raging fires and deadly heatwaves, Trump and his cronies are bent on putting polluter profits ahead of people’s lives.”
Rylander also expressed confidence that efforts to undo these climate protections would ultimately fail in court. “We’re going to fight it every step of the way,” he said.
The United States remains the world’s second-largest carbon emitter after China and holds the distinction of being the largest historical contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
The decision to eliminate environmental justice programs follows last week’s move to drop a case against a Louisiana petrochemical plant accused of increasing cancer risks in a predominantly Black community.
Zeldin dismissed the concept of environmental justice, claiming it has been used primarily “as an excuse to fund left-wing activists instead of actually spending those dollars to directly remediate environmental issues for those communities.”
Matthew Tejada, who formerly led the EPA’s environmental justice office, condemned the rollbacks, saying Trump and Zeldin were “taking us back to a time of unfettered pollution across the nation, leaving every American exposed to toxic chemicals, dirty air, and contaminated water.” Tejada now works at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Industry leaders, however, welcomed the changes.
Anne Bradbury, CEO of the American Exploration & Production Council, an oil industry trade group, praised Zeldin’s actions, arguing that the U.S. is “stronger and more secure when we are energy dominant.”
Her organization has long pushed for modifications to EPA rules to ensure they are “workable, effective, and build on the significant emissions reductions” already achieved by the oil and gas industry.
“We support updating these rules so the American people can continue to benefit from affordable, reliable, and clean American energy,” Bradbury said. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers condemned the move.
New Jersey Representative Frank Pallone, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, described Zeldin’s actions as “a despicable betrayal of the American people.”
“Every day, more Americans lose their jobs, homes, and even their lives to worsening climate disasters,” Pallone said.
“Trump and Zeldin are making a mockery of those people’s pain,” he added, warning that the consequences of these rollbacks would be “swift and catastrophic” for both the environment and public health.
