How the Trump Administration & Congressional Republicans Are Rewriting Rules to Make Industry Richer, Harming Environmental Justice Communities the Most
By Yosef Robele, Federal Policy Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and Brielle Green, Senior Legislative Counsel at Earthjustice
Clean air, water, and a healthy environment are fundamental human rights that must be safeguarded for everyone. Protecting these rights requires our constant vigilance, enforcing environmental protections to hold polluters accountable when they violate them. History shows us that without these legal protections and regulations, industries wreak havoc on our climate, local environments, communities, and health. Before the Clean Air Act and the establishment of the EPA, industry pollution created dense smog that blanketed American cities, lead contaminated our water, toxins filled our air, and Indigenous, as well as low-income, and communities of color were exposed to the most and worst of these harms. These realities moved a diverse people-powered coalition of advocates to action, resulting in agencies, laws, and regulations we still rely on to safeguard us today. They are a powerful check on polluting industries, which is why these companies are working so hard to undermine them.
The problem for polluters? Clean air and water are widely popular, with 86% of voters opposing attempts to weaken the EPA, (including 72% of Trump voters) and 80% supporting increasing federal funding for communities disproportionately harmed by air and water pollution. Instead of seeking an outright removal of popular laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, industry is lobbying the Trump Administration to upend the regulatory agencies that help enforce them. They’re pushing for weak and toothless regulations riddled with loopholes, the outright voiding of some protections, defunding agencies and firing staff, all while manufacturing misinformation to obscure the scientific evidence needed to establish strong, data-driven, and health-protective standards.
The end goal is clear: Rig the system to pad their profit margins while silencing everyday people—especially pollution‑burdened communities—subsequently denying our communities a voice in what happens to their health and environment. Here’s how the Trump administration, industry, and their allies are rewriting the rules to pollute.
Abandoning Their Mission: Undermining EPA Pollution Protections
Trump’s EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, is implementing a deregulatory agenda that undermines the Agency’s core mission “to protect human health and the environment.” In 2009, by court order, EPA issued an Endangerment Finding allowing it to regulate six greenhouse gases driving climate change. This Endangerment Finding drew on extensive scientific evidence to determine that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health. For over 15 years, it has been the foundation for EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas operations, transportation, and power generation.
In the same year that the U.S. experienced over 100 billion in climate damages in the first six months alone, the EPA is proposing to rollback this foundational finding, undoing decades of protections. Climate impacts are felt first and worst by low-income communities and people of color who have been redlined into areas most vulnerable to extreme weather, including deadly heat and devastating storms. Despite established scientific evidence supporting the Endangerment Finding, the Trump EPA coordinated with the Department of Energy to produce a climate report filled with cherry-picked data , flawed arguments, and misinformation to justify its repeal. And in the same year as the EPA’s 55th anniversary, this dangerous rollback strategy extends beyond the Endangerment Finding, with over 30 other rules under threat, including the national air quality standards for PM2.5 commonly known as “soot” pollution. If the EPA is successful in weakening the soot rule, which groups like Clean Air for the Long Haul worked tirelessly to improve, it will deny the public protections that are projected to prevent 4,500 premature deaths, 290,000 lost workdays, 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms, and 2,000 emergency room visits annually, along with forfeiting billions of dollars in health benefits. As the impacts of the climate crisis intensify, revoking the Endangerment Finding and other critical protective rules abandons the mission of the EPA, betrays the public, and puts polluter profits over our lives.
Supercharging the Congressional Review Act to Attack State Environmental Progress
In June 2025, President Trump and Congressional Republicans used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) in an unlawful attempt to revoke California’s waivers to regulate vehicle emissions. As we have written before, the CRA has long been a favorite tool of Congress to halt federal agencies from enacting strong and necessary environmental, occupational, and consumer protection standards. This year, 20 rules were repealed using the CRA, with three targeting California’s Emissions Waivers. As progress on regulating climate pollution at the national level has been slow, California has led the nation in lowering climate emissions by using these EPA waivers to set stronger vehicle emissions limits than the federal government. In turn, 11 other states have followed suit, voluntarily adopting California’s standards to reduce pollution and protect communities.
Republican lawmakers, eager to undo state progress, broke Senate rules and violated the law dictating how and when federal rules can be repealed using the CRA. The Governmental Accountability Office (GAO), the nonpartisan body that determines what rules are subject to CRA resolutions, has not once, but twice determined that California’s waivers are not subject to repeal under the law. Even the Senate parliamentarian, a Republican Congressional appointee, agreed with this determination. Despite this, the Republican majority broke procedural and legal rules by voting to repeal all three California waivers in both chambers. President Trump signed them into law and California has since sued.
Preventing Enforcement: Forcing Experts Out
An effective protective regulatory system needs agencies to be well staffed with skilled scientists who bring deep expertise in fields such as public health, ecology, and other related fields. This year, the Trump administration has unlawfully carried out mass firings of federal employees, targeting environmental justice, science, and enforcement offices, including programs focused on air, climate, energy, and chemical safety. Through the guise of “reducing fraud and abuse,” the Trump administration is removing any staff who reinforce the reality that pollution is harmful, climate change is real, and structural racism continues to exist. Notable EPA dismantlings include dissolving the Office of Research and Development, “the heart and brain of the EPA,” which employs over a thousand scientists, as well as eliminating the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, which was tasked with allocating $3 billion in climate and environmental justice block grants. These mass firings, and the forced removal of expertise from the Federal government, will have devastating long-term impacts making it harder for agencies to create and enforce science-based regulations that protect public health and hold polluters accountable.
Giving Industry the Keys: Trump’s ‘Concierge White-Glove Service’ For Polluters
The Trump administration has gone above and beyond to quickly permit polluting projects. One of Trump’s first executive orders revoked regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock, bi-partisan environmental law that requires the government to consult with communities, disclose a project’s potential impacts, and present alternatives before permitting it. These actions, coupled with a recent Supreme Court case narrowing the scope of NEPA, inject uncertainty and chaos into the permitting process, and ultimately leave communities with fewer opportunities to have a say in projects impacting their lives.
This isn’t just about protecting a process – it’s already having major implications. The administration is approving major fossil fuel projects quickly and it’s likely they are not conducting the rigorous environmental analysis required to protect our air, water, and public health. Administration officials have bragged of providing a ‘concierge, white-glove service’ to polluting projects that have rushed approvals for everything from controversial dirty mines to prolonging the lifespan of polluting coal-fired power plants, while blocking permits and defunding renewable energy projects. As industry lines their pockets, those living at the fenceline of these polluting facilities will pay the greatest price.
We Won’t Go Back – It’s Time to Shape a Better Future for Our Health & Environment
We cannot go back to a time of unregulated industries that pollute our air, water, land, leaving communities to suffer the consequences. Coupled with an intensifying climate crisis, longstanding environmental injustices continue to harm the most vulnerable, and put everyone’s lives in danger. Strengthening our environmental, climate, and public health protections is an obligation of our government, not a choice. Yet, the Trump administration and its allies continue to partner with industry to rewrite the rules to undo basic protections and ignore our fundamental human rights. It’s time to shape a better future – one where polluters are held accountable and the health and well-being of our communities are safeguarded.