{"id":5164,"date":"2025-03-13T07:05:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T11:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weact.org\/?post_type=update&p=5164"},"modified":"2026-02-16T21:04:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T02:04:31","slug":"zeldins-epa-rollbacks-are-dagger-straight-into-the-heart-of-vulnerable-people-and-sell-out-to-polluters","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/zeldins-epa-rollbacks-are-dagger-straight-into-the-heart-of-vulnerable-people-and-sell-out-to-polluters\/","title":{"rendered":"Zeldin\u2019s EPA Rollbacks are \u2018Dagger Straight into the Heart\u2019 of Vulnerable People and Sell-Out to Polluters"},"template":"","class_list":["post-5164","update","type-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_type-press-release","focus_tax-clean-air","person_tax-leslie-fields"],"acf":{"details":{"":null,"featured_image":5221,"update_type":[366],"focus_area":[5],"authors":[197],"abstract":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_hero_links","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_hero_links":{"title":"","abstract":"","links":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\r\n<\/b>March 13, 2025\r\n<\/span>Contact: Ashley Sullivan, <\/span>ashley.sullivan@weact.org<\/span><\/a>\r\n\r\nWASHINGTON<\/b> \u2013 <\/span>Yesterday, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> a massive, immoral, and deadly rollback of public health and environmental protections, violating his obligations and the mission of the EPA \u201cto protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment -- air, water and land -- upon which life depends.\u201d By undoing these essential protections, Lee Zeldin and President Trump are encouraging polluters to expose people across the country - especially people of color and of low-income - to even more toxic air pollution from power plants, release tons of waste into our drinking water, and \u201cunleash\u201d never-before-seen levels of greenhouse gas emissions driving the climate crisis. Zeldin\u2019s effort will undo years of health protective advocacy work and force an entirely new rulemaking process. This move, along with Zeldin\u2019s directive <\/span>to close all environmental justice offices and continue illegal funding freezes,<\/span><\/a> is in full abandonment of the <\/span>needs, wants<\/span><\/a>, and lives of people across the country, and is overt environmental racism.<\/span>\r\n<\/span>\r\n\r\nA refusal to address the real, felt impacts of climate crisis, pollution, and environmental racism will not make these issues go away, but will instead lead to lost opportunities, more disease, and destruction. Removing protections against pollution from mercury and air toxics will lead to thousands of children suffering with reduced neurological function for the rest of their lives. Zeldin\u2019s decision to remove soot pollution protections will add<\/span> 4,500 premature deaths, 290,000 lost workdays, 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms, and 2,000 emergency room visits annually,<\/span><\/a> along with a loss of billions of dollars in health benefits. People of color, especially Black individuals, are exposed to more air pollution. In over 96% of all counties, Black residents face the <\/span>highest level of mortality from PM 2.5 (soot) pollution.<\/span><\/a> These are only two examples of dozens of protections removed by Zeldin; The scale of these rollbacks will include the preventable loss of millions of lives, primarily of people of color and of low-income.<\/span>\r\n<\/span>\r\n\r\nPeople across the U.S. did not vote for dirty air and dirty water. In fact, 80% of American voters - including 72% of those who voted for Trump -<\/span> support increasing federal funding <\/span><\/a>to communities disproportionately harmed by air and water pollution. We were told by Trump appointee Zeldin in his confirmation hearing and repeatedly since that, <\/span>\u201cEvery American should have access to clean air, land, and water. I will ensure the EPA is fulfilling its mission to protect human health and the environment<\/span><\/a>.\u201d These rollbacks and related actions betray his promise to uphold the legal obligations of the EPA and the Trump administration to protect people equally from harm.\u00a0 <\/span>\r\n\r\nIn response, Leslie Fields, WE ACT\u2019s Chief Federal Officer, shared the following statement:\r\n\r\n\u201cThese actions by Zeldin and Trump to demolish EPA protections, to quote Zeldin, will drive a \u2018Dagger Straight into the Heart\u2019 of our health, drive up medical, energy, and disaster costs, and destroy our future. As a reminder to administrator Zeldin and the Trump administration, the EPA has a legal obligation to comply with and enforce environmental regulations that keep us safe. Instead, this move fulfills Trump\u2019s agenda to smash any and all protections people have against polluters who want to poison our air, water, and land - hurting people of color and low-income people (across race and ethnicity) the most.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"In nearly every American county, more Black people die from air pollution<\/span><\/a>. Enabling this disparity is environmental racism, and these rollbacks will lead to continued increasing rates of cancer, lung and heart disease, illnesses, and premature death in our communities. Alongside these rollbacks, the general prejudiced policies of administrator Zeldin and President Trump to gut the EPA, <\/span>challenge key climate findings and protections<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>dismantle essential offices,<\/span><\/a> illegally freeze urgent funds<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>weaponize environmental justice<\/span><\/a> will crush job opportunities, increase costs to everyday people, ruin economies, and most viciously - cost millions of our lives. In the face of these broken promises and acts of harm, our movement is strong and we will never stop the work to achieve environmental justice for all.\u201d<\/span>\r\n

# # #<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\nWE ACT for Environmental Justice\u00a0is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and\/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at\u00a0weact.org<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter\/X<\/a>, and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.","include_drop_cap":false}}]},"yoast_head":"\nZeldin\u2019s EPA Rollbacks are \u2018Dagger Straight into the Heart\u2019 of Vulnerable People and Sell-Out to Polluters - WE ACT for Environmental Justice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/zeldins-epa-rollbacks-are-dagger-straight-into-the-heart-of-vulnerable-people-and-sell-out-to-polluters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zeldin\u2019s EPA Rollbacks are \u2018Dagger Straight into the Heart\u2019 of Vulnerable People and Sell-Out to Polluters - WE ACT for Environmental Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/zeldins-epa-rollbacks-are-dagger-straight-into-the-heart-of-vulnerable-people-and-sell-out-to-polluters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WE ACT for Environmental Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-17T02:04:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Press-Release.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/zeldins-epa-rollbacks-are-dagger-straight-into-the-heart-of-vulnerable-people-and-sell-out-to-polluters\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/zeldins-epa-rollbacks-are-dagger-straight-into-the-heart-of-vulnerable-people-and-sell-out-to-polluters\/\",\"name\":\"Zeldin\u2019s EPA Rollbacks are \u2018Dagger Straight into the Heart\u2019 of Vulnerable People and Sell-Out to Polluters - 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