A shift in focus, and pushback over what it means for health and climate
The Trump administration has reshaped the Environmental Protection Agency in its first year, cutting federal limits on air and water pollution while promoting fossil fuels, a change critics say conflicts with the agency’s historical mission to protect human health and the environment. The Associated Press review describes the reorientation as “Trump’s EPA,” a label Lee Zeldin has used for the agency.
Environmentalists and other opponents say the administration’s approach threatens to undo climate-friendly initiatives that could be hard or impossible to reverse. Douglas Brinkley, a historian, criticized the administration’s priorities in remarks carried by AP, saying it “just constantly wants to pat the fossil fuel business on the back and turn back the clock to a pre-Richard Nixon era.”
Zeldin’s deregulation agenda and the “five pillars”
AP reports that the administration points to its regulatory overhaul as a way to “unleash” the American economy, while it freezes clean-energy funding and restructures EPA work. It describes a series of moves associated with Zeldin, including proposing to overturn the landmark finding that climate change is a threat to human health and pledging to roll back dozens of environmental regulations. Zeldin called the deregulation effort “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” according to the AP account.
Zeldin also proposed changes that AP says include freezing billions of dollars for clean energy and upending agency research. AP adds that Zeldin announced “five pillars” to guide the agency, with four of those pillars described as economic goals—one of which is energy dominance, a phrase associated with producing more fossil fuels, and another centered on boosting the auto industry.
AP says Zeldin told reporters that his views on climate change have evolved and argued that many federal and state climate goals are unattainable in the near future and carry “huge cost.” In early December at EPA headquarters, AP reports Zeldin told reporters: “We should not be causing … extreme economic pain for an individual or a family” because of policies aimed at “saving the planet.”
What opponents say could rise: pollutants, health impacts, and extreme weather
Scientists and experts responding to the administration’s new direction argue it comes with public-health costs. AP reports that they say it would lead to far more pollutants in the environment, including mercury, lead and especially tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs. They also warn that higher greenhouse-gas emissions would worsen atmospheric warming driving more frequent, costly and deadly extreme weather, according to AP’s account.
Former EPA leader Christine Todd Whitman, who headed the agency under George W. Bush, told AP she found the developments “just depressing.” AP also reports Whitman said, “It’s tragic for our country,” adding that she worried about her grandchildren’s future if they do not have clean air or clean water.
Planned targets: soot, refrigerants, wetlands and vehicle fuel economy
AP says Zeldin has announced plans to abandon soot pollution rules, loosen rules around harmful refrigerants, limit wetlands protections and weaken gas mileage rules. AP also reports that the administration has signaled exemptions from federal emissions-reductions requirements for polluting industries and plants.
The AP account says much of this direction aligns with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s conservative road map. AP quotes Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a Heritage director, saying the regulations put in place during the Biden administration were “more harmful and restrictive than in any other period,” which she said helps explain why deregulating them is described as major change.
Former and current EPA officials criticize the new posture
Chris Frey, an EPA official under Biden, told AP that regulations targeted by Zeldin offered benefits including “avoided premature deaths” and “avoided chronic illness.” AP also reports that Matthew Tejada, a former EPA official under both Trump and Biden who now works at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said of the revamped EPA: “I think it would be hard for them to make it any clearer to polluters in this country that they can go on about their business and not worry about EPA getting in their way.”
AP reports Zeldin has also reduced staffing, shrinking EPA staffing by about 20% to levels last seen in the mid-1980s. Justin Chen, president of the EPA’s largest union, called staff cuts “devastating” in comments carried by AP, citing dismantling of research and development offices at labs across the country and the firing of employees who signed a letter of dissent opposing EPA cuts.
Enforcement and grants: faster deregulation steps, critics say
AP describes that many changes are not yet in effect and must move through rulemaking, public input and final rollbacks. It says deregulation can happen faster through grant cuts and enforcement changes, and that the administration has been doing both.
Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit cited by AP, reported that the number of new civil environmental actions is roughly one-fifth of what it was in the first eight months of the Biden administration. Leif Fredrickson, a visiting assistant professor of history at the University of Montana, told AP: “You can effectively do a lot of deregulation if you just don’t do enforcement.”
AP also includes a response from Brigit Hirsch, the EPA spokeswoman. AP reports Hirsch said the number of legal filings is not the best way to judge enforcement and that the agency is focused on “efficiently resolving violations and achieving compliance as quickly as possible,” not making demands beyond what the law requires.
Climate programs and environmental justice targeted, AP reports
AP says the cuts have hit climate change programs and environmental justice, which are aimed at addressing chronic pollution that often affects minority and poor communities. AP reports Zeldin dismissed staff and canceled billions in grants for projects under a “diversity, equity and inclusion” umbrella, which the Trump administration has targeted.
AP further reports Zeldin moved against a $20 billion “green bank” set up under Biden’s landmark climate law. AP says Zeldin argued the fund was a scheme to funnel money with little oversight to Democrat-aligned organizations with little oversight, but that allegations were rejected by a federal judge.
Pat Parenteau, an environmental law expert and former director of the Environmental Law School at Vermont Law & Graduate School, told AP he sees little optimism for “the two most awful crises in the 21st century”—biodiversity loss and climate disruption—saying: “I don’t see any hope for either one,” and “I really don’t.”
The EPA’s mission—and how it has changed across administrations
AP traces the agency’s origins to 1970, when it was launched under President Richard Nixon, amid public concern over pollution affecting cities and rivers. AP says Congress passed laws that remain foundational for protecting water, air and endangered species.
The AP account says the agency’s approach has “seesawed” depending on who occupies the White House. It describes Biden’s EPA as boosting renewable energy and electric vehicles, tightening motor-vehicle emissions, and proposing greenhouse-gas limits on coal-fired power plants and oil and gas wells, while industry groups called the rules overly burdensome and said a power plant rule would force many aging plants to shut down—leading businesses to shift resources to meet stricter requirements, AP says.
Brigit Hirsch, the EPA spokeswoman, told AP that the Biden EPA repeatedly attempted to “usurp the U