President Trump’s new EPA administrator said on Wednesday that he was preparing to retreat dozens of historical environmental rules, including those crucial for California programs on climate change and electric vehicles.
“We drive a dagger directly to the heart of the religion of climate change,” said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, in a press release.
One of the rules that Zeldin plans to revise is the agency's conclusion in 2009 that warming gases endangered public health. Known as “conclusion of endangerment”, this is the legal under-tension for a multitude of climate regulations for motor vehicles, power plants and other sources of air pollution.
Environmental groups said they would fight the declines.
“Today's announcement is only the start of the process – not the end,” said Jackie Wong, main climate and energy vice -president at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Before finalizing one of these actions, the law says that EPA must propose its changes, justify them with science and law, and listen to the public and respond to its concerns.”
“At a time when millions of Americans are trying to rebuild after horrible forest fires and hurricane-powered hurricanes, it is absurd to try to deny that climate change harms our health and well-being,” said Wong.
In all, Zeldin said, he takes measures to relax 31 environmental rules, calling him “the most consecutive day of the deregulation of American history”.
Among the rules to be revised are those restricting the industrial pollution of mercury and other air toxins, as well as those limiting soot pollution and protecting wetlands.
“These actions will bring billions of dollars back into regulatory fees and hidden taxes,” said Zeldin. “Consequently, the cost of living for American families will decrease, and essential elements such as the purchase of a car, the heating of your home and the operation of a business will become more affordable.”
In a memo this week, Zeldin also said that the agency closed its environmental court offices that had worked to reduce pollution in poor communities. One of these offices was on the regional location of the agency in San Francisco.
Zeldin said the action was in response to President Trump's executive decree on “the end of the programs and preferences of the government of the radical and useless government”, according to the memo, which had previously been reported by the New York Times and CBS.
Environmental groups have said that work on environmental justice has helped protect vulnerable communities, which have shown studies can deal with higher pollution levels.
“Ending the efforts of environmental justice does not serve the American people. This does not accomplish anything significant towards the EPA mission to protect our environment and keep our air and our water clean, “said Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, in a press release. “There is only one goal at the announcement of Lee Zeldin: allowing large polluters to continue cutting the corners.”
EPA has created the environmental justice office In 1992 During the administration of the Republican President George HW Bush.
Now known as the Office of Environmental Justice of the Agency and external civil rights, it was considerably extended in 2022 under the president of the time, Biden.
Since became the agency's administrator, Zeldin has canceled hundreds of subsidies, some of whom are to help poor communities.
“Working hand in hand with DOGE to brake unnecessary federal expenses, EPA saved more than $ 2 billion in taxpayers,” said Zeldin a declaration On Monday, referring to the so-called Ministry of Elon Musk's government efficiency. “We are our commitment to the EPA to be exceptional taxes of taxes.”
Last week, the EPA and the Ministry of Justice rejected legal action against the owner of the company of a neoprene manufacturing plant in Laplace, the.
The withdrawal of the case against the chemical manufacturer, officials said A press releasewas part of Zeldin's commitment to end the use of environmental justice “as a tool to advance ideological priorities”.
Biden administration had pursued Denka Performance Elastomère in 2023, alleging that the plant had created an unacceptable risk of cancer for black residents living nearby.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
