New EPA Chief Launches 31-Point Attack on Our Health and Environment

Trump’s EPA chief placed a huge array of environmental protections on the chopping block with a 31-part order on March 12. Lee Zeldin directed the EPA to begin the process of gutting federal rules to safeguard our health, air, water, and climate.

Earthjustice has already met this administration’s environmental attacks with a series of lawsuits.

“The Trump administration seems determined to take us back to a time when our air was so polluted it was unsafe to breathe, and our waters were so toxic they caught on fire,” said Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice. “Should the EPA undo settled law and irrefutable facts, we expect to see this administration in court.”

Earthjustice previously successfully defended many of these safeguards in court and will do so again.

Here’s what the newly announced plans mean for:

Water Pollution

• The Trump administration announced it is excluding certain wetlands from clean water protections.

• • All water is connected, so pollution that goes into wetlands can easily spread to lakes, rivers, and other drinking water sources.
  • This new guidance accelerates destruction of wildlife habitats by mining, oil and gas operations, industrial agriculture, and irresponsible land use.

• The administration is also reconsidering protections against coal ash, a major waste stream that threatens drinking water.

• • Coal ash is a byproduct of coal-fired power plants. It contains arsenic, lead, mercury, radium, and other toxic chemicals linked to numerous cancers and neurological and cardiovascular harms.
  • Trump’s EPA is threatening to delay deadlines and revise regulations for more than 300 sites across the U.S. where unlined coal ash dumps have been contaminating the soil and water for decades. Every day contamination spreads and cleanup becomes more difficult.
  • Plant owners have largely evaded their obligation to monitor and clean up toxic coal ash for a decade, but many were obligated to begin monitoring this year. Results from initial monitoring at just 46 locations reviewed by Earthjustice this month reveal over 60 million cubic yards of coal ash previously exempt from federal oversight. (See where coal ash might be stored near you.)

Air Pollution

• The Trump administration will reconsider rules on air pollutants that are credited with saving thousands of lives every year, including:
  • The Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS), which has forced power plants to rein in mercury and other air pollution linked to breathing illnesses, heart disease, and cancer. The EPA has previously estimated that this rule has saved up to 11,000 lives every year.
  • Standards on air pollution (soot) that were adopted last year. PM2.5 can penetrate deep into our lungs and hearts, contributing to countless chronic illnesses, and it kills nearly 50,000 people in the U.S. every year.
• The administration is ending the Good Neighbor Plan, a smog reduction policy that the EPA previously estimated would prevent approximately 1,300 deaths annually.
• The administration also wants to restructure the regional haze program, which protects visibility and air quality in national parks and wilderness areas by state plans to reduce haze-causing pollution.

Climate Emissions

• The EPA will reconsider standards that limit carbon pollution from coal plants and new gas plants.
  • Fossil fuel power plants account for more than a third of all U.S. carbon pollution. The standards are expected to cut annual carbon emissions by the same amount as taking 328 million gas cars off the road.
  • The EPA estimated that in 2035 alone, these standards would avoid up to 1,200 premature deaths.
  • The EPA has the legal authority — and responsibility — under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon pollution.
• The EPA is also reevaluating car and truck pollution standards. Transportation is the largest source of climate pollution in the U.S., accounting for nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Fair, Fact-based Policymaking

• The administration is closing all of the EPA’s environmental justice offices, which work to reduce the disproportionately high levels of pollution that burden low-income communities and communities of color.
• The administration also announced it is seeking nominations for two key advisory panels, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and Science Advisory Board, after it fired all the previous members in January. Both groups provide expert technical guidance and key checks to ensure that EPA policies are rooted in science, not politics. The EPA gave no justification for the firings.