By Ben Jealous
As they say in horror movies, the call is coming from inside the house.
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Under Donald Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reversed its own mission. And last week, EPA Administration Lee Zeldin outright declared war on the American people.
Zeldin announced 31 actions he celebrated as “the largest deregulatory announcement in US history.” The administration is attempting to undo critical progress that is currently saving lives and saving Americans’ money – on health care costs, energy bills, and more. Moreover, Trump and Zeldin are trying to undercut the EPA’s very ability to do its job and protect our health, our communities, and our futures.
If Trump and Zeldin are successful in undoing the rules they have targeted, the consequences are guaranteed to be dire. Dire for the thousands of Americans who will die needlessly every year. Dire for the thousands of children who spend more days in the hospital and fewer days in school. Dire for working families whose electricity and health care bills will go up, and whose air and water will become the things that are killing them rather than keeping them alive.
Dire for the tens of millions of American children and adults living with asthma – like Kyla Peck, whom I spoke with last World Asthma Day. Kyla recalled her first rude awakening with how poor air quality was not just a threat to her daily physical wellbeing but also her bank account:
“I was home in Chicago from college, maybe 20 years old, and I had a really, really bad asthma attack. I was hospitalized for maybe about 12 hours. Then I received the bill. Even after insurance paid their part, I owed about $500. I was in college; I had no money … It was stressful, not only having to navigate the asthma attack but having to learn to navigate my own financial situation living with this illness.”
Now let us look at just one of the rules under attack by the Trump administration that are helping people like Kyla every day. Just over a year ago, when the EPA was fulfilling its mission, it finalized improved air quality standards. At the time, the agency estimated that, come 2032, that one rule alone would “prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays, yielding up to $46 billion in net health benefits;” that in that year, for every dollar spent from that rule, “there could be as much as $77 in human health benefits.”
Announcing that rule back in February of 2024, then EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, “Cleaner air means that our children have brighter futures, and people can live more productive and active lives.”
It is pretty hard to argue with that statement… unless you are not bothered by your actions killing Americans and making their lives worse. And that is exactly what we are seeing with this presidential administration. What a difference a year makes.
Among Zeldin’s 31 actions is doing away with the EPA’s own 2009 finding that planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution “threatens the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” That finding has been the underpinning of years of EPA actions that have protected Americans, saved countless lives, and made it possible for us to combat the climate crisis on multiple fronts.
This week we celebrate three global days of recognition meant to highlight the importance and urgency of protecting our environment – for the sake of both nature and mankind. This Friday is the International Day of Forests, highlighting how forests and trees “fuel food security, support livelihoods, and sustain our planet.” Saturday is World Water Day, with a theme this year of fighting the climate crisis to mitigate the devastation of our rapidly melting glaciers. And Sunday is World Meteorological Day, with this year’s theme focused on the importance of early warning systems in reducing the harm of climate-driven extreme weather events. These three days all highlight areas in which the Trump administration is decimating America’s leadership and gutting our own government’s ability to address threats – including the administration’s mass firings and reckless budget slashing at agencies like the US Forest Service (which helps lead US efforts to combat wildfires) and the National Weather Service.
With last week’s move by the EPA, it is sadly ironic that the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine science, common sense, climate resilience, and public health are coming to a crescendo – so far – right as the world turns its attention to the necessity of environmental protection. Americans will not take these attacks lying down. We are — and will keep – fighting back.
Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
