The Trump administration’s rollbacks to environmental regulations, including the proposed repeal of the EPA’s Endangerment Finding, the undermining of science, and the reversal of climate actions, are translating into more people dying. People, especially the nation’s youth, are rising up to put a stop to the destruction of life on the planet.
The struggle was ramped up when Lee Zeldin, the Trump-appointed EPA head, announced July 29 that the EPA intended to rescind the Endangerment Finding and all greenhouse gas emissions regulations on medium and heavy-duty vehicles. That potentially deadly decision followed EPA staff cuts, slashes to EPA funding, and other deregulatory actions by the Department of Energy that cheered fossil fuel profiteers and cleared the way for polluters.
In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a finding that brought together robust scientific evidence and broad expert consensus that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and drive global warming) endanger public health and welfare. Decades of climate research contributed to this understanding: Greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare because climate change is a danger to human health and welfare.
Much earlier, in 1970, in response to worsening air quality and a growing epidemic of respiratory health problems, the federal government passed the Clean Air Act and established the Environmental Protection Agency. The Clean Air Act obliged the EPA to regulate air pollution in the service of public health, limiting noxious air pollutants like sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter—the kinds of substances that cause hazy smog and hurt to breathe in—which can be emitted from many sources, including factories and vehicles.
In other words, the Endangerment Finding gave the EPA the authority to develop and enforce regulations to reduce climate change-causing pollution, such as carbon dioxide emissions, based on the Clean Air Act. While carbon dioxide isn’t noxious per se, the fact that it contributes to climate change makes it a public health hazard that the EPA can regulate.
Zeldin delivered the news of the intent to repeal this essential finding from applying to a trucking facility in Indiana, where he stood shoulder to shoulder with U.S. Energy Secretary and former fracking executive Chris Wright, as well as auto industry representatives and Republican lawmakers.
His smug speech attempted to cast doubt on the scientific basis of the Endangerment Finding and minimize the role of greenhouse gases in climate change, twisting the facts to suit the agenda of the powerful fossil fuel and automobile lobbies that back the Trump administration. As head of the EPA, Zeldin is working to undermine its very mission by questioning its authority to regulate to curb climate change—to use science in the service of critical regulations that protect public health and safeguard environmental quality.
Sacrifice public health
In essence, Zeldin’s mission at the EPA is fundamentally anti-working class, as he sacrifices public health and progress on climate change for fossil fuel profits that benefit the wealthy.
The elimination of these regulations will mean an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating the global climate crisis and increasing U.S. responsibility for provoking it. This headfirst dive into worsening the ongoing environmental disaster will endanger people’s lives and worsen the quality of life in the U.S. and around the world. Extreme heat waves, unprecedented storms and wildfires, and ecological disruptions will cause widespread suffering.
This MAGA plot to stifle action on climate change and dismantle the agencies that help address it will disproportionately impact working people and marginalized and oppressed groups. People’s World spoke with Danae Ávila-Dickson, a spokesperson for The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate justice movement that has been influential in promoting the Green New Deal.
“I think who’s going to be most affected is working people and people at the frontlines of the climate crisis,” she said. “We’re already going to see those effects directly… the devastation of the Texas floods was made worse by the fact that Donald Trump was both making these rollbacks and cutting funding for agencies like FEMA.”
Historically, the communities on the frontlines of climate catastrophe have been Indigenous groups, Black communities, immigrants, and women. For example, in the United States, neighborhoods and counties with majority Black and Latino populations are far more likely to experience high rates of air pollution, water pollution, or be situated near toxic waste facilities. Ecologically damaging extractive industries, such as mineral mining and oil drilling, are disproportionately located on Indigenous lands.
Gender inequality is also linked to climate vulnerability, with women and girls globally facing worse impacts from climate and ecological disasters. A study released last year by the International Refugee Assistance Project also reveals climate change as a major driver causing people to flee their home countries and seek refuge elsewhere, potentially exposing them to violence and danger from criminal and state forces.
Rescinding the Endangerment Finding and other environmental deregulations are a boon to the fossil fuel industry, who seek solely to maximize its profits and views regulations as an expense and inconvenience. The role of the EPA is to protect people from polluters and help ensure public health and welfare through defending environmental quality. The Trump administration is actively undermining this mission to benefit his industry backers.
It is no accident that Zeldin delivered the news of the intent to repeal the Endangerment Finding while surrounded by auto industry representatives. The finding allows the EPA to regulate motor vehicle emissions, as well as factories and other sources of greenhouse gas pollution. Under Zeldin, however, the new EPA proposal specifically calls for the elimination of car and truck regulations, meaning the disappearance of electric vehicle incentives and impunity for automakers to pollute as much as they please.
Zeldin claims that environmental deregulation will lower prices for Americans, bring back auto jobs, and end “$1 trillion or more in hidden taxes on American business and families.” Climate experts and advocates point to the immense economic havoc deregulation will cause, both in the short and long term.
Far from saving consumers money or boosting the economy, deregulation will end up being extremely costly. According to a study from the World Economic Forum, climate change costs the world $16 million per hour, mostly in damages caused by extreme weather events. Taking action that will exacerbate climate change will drive these costs even higher.
Economic effects are much worse
Ávila-Dickson notes that “it’s clear that the economic impacts of climate change are going to be much, much greater than the funding for the EPA or FEMA” needed to help climate-vulnerable communities, “especially as climate disasters get worse and worse.”
These departments use up relatively small portions of the federal budget, especially in relation to the military and immigration enforcement, yet they carry out the crucial work of research, regulation, support, and response to the threats posed by climate change and environmental disasters.
“Investing in climate mitigation, investing in protections for people is going to be less expensive than the cost of these climate disasters,” Ávila-Dickson added, highlighting the need for a more rational and efficient use of government resources. In the age of endangerment, that means spending more to understand, prevent, and mitigate climate change instead of letting the oil and gas industry set policy.
Looking at these developments in the U.S. environment and energy policy from a global perspective illuminates a concerning regression. “What’s also clear in what’s happening globally is that the U.S. is going to get left behind…while other countries are going to be investing in green jobs, in clean energy, in climate action, the U.S. is investing in the profits of the fossil fuel industry,” the Sunrise Movement spokesperson explained.
The uncertainty of the proposed rollbacks going through—and the potential for that decision to be reversed in the future—also provokes economic instability and chaos for companies and industries, leading to job losses and a reversal of economic investment in energy and manufacturing in the US.
In a nutshell, Ávila-Dickson stated, “The rollbacks in clean energy will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country” and stifle progress on any transition to renewable energy, let alone a just one.
Household energy prices are already climbing, even as Trump declares further plans to block renewable energy projects, and a report from the advocacy and research group Climate Power indicates that over 64,000 jobs have already been lost or are in limbo in the clean energy sector.
“Over and over again, as we’re seeing Donald Trump roll back environmental regulations or defund projects in the federal government, these actions are becoming more unpopular,” Ávila-Dickson noted.
Indeed, a recent poll from Data for Progress indicates that a majority of U.S. voters agree that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health and an even larger majority believes emissions should be regulated. The Sunrise Movement spokesperson also observed that the rollbacks are not only unpopular “with working people across the country who don’t believe these things should be cut, but we’re also starting to see blowback from corporations and others who this would affect economically.”
Gallup polls also show that a majority of Americans, around 60%, believe the US government is not doing enough to protect the environment, and many also observe a decline in environmental quality.
Quick to denounce
Climate experts and environmental justice advocates have been quick to denounce the proposed regulator repeals. The Environmental Protection Network, a group of EPA alumni working to provide expertise and assistance to support environmental efforts and organizations, condemned the proposal to repeal the Endangerment Finding.
In a July 29th statement, an EPN official called the decision “both legally indefensible and morally bankrupt.” The statement further warns that the consequences of this decision will include tens of thousands more premature deaths due to pollution exposure, millions more asthma attacks, and billions of dollars in lost health and climate benefits.
Activists, experts, and organizations have already mobilized to fight back against these actions and preserve federal environmental protections.
Ávila-Dickson explained the Sunrise Movement strategy for a just, sustainable future: “Right now, what Sunrise is doing is we’re trying to build a mass movement of young people that can disrupt business as usual so that we can end big oil and bring down the oligarchy that’s letting Trump hold on to power.”
She further explained that the Trump administration represents a roadblock to climate action, because “they are going to do everything in their power to block that just transition so that their fossil fuel donors can continue to profit.”
A key part of the fightback is working to elect officials who prioritize the environment and the just transition and are not indebted to the fossil fuel industry. It also includes pushing for climate wins at the local and state level–tightening local environmental regulations and passing policy to promote the energy transition, curb pollution, and promote conservation and sustainability.
The swift, ambitious action that we need on climate change will only come from a mass movement of the working class demanding fundamental changes that will safeguard our future.
As Ávila-Dickson describes, “Throughout history, working people across race, religion, and borders have organized to bring down authoritarians and end oligarchs, and that’s been through disrupting business as usual when workers walk off the jobs, when government workers don’t cooperate with Donald Trump.”
The Sunrise Movement’s plan includes building up the student movement in particular to be ready to participate in a mass strike on May 1st, 2028, when UAW locals and other unions are lining up their contract expiration dates.
“And we do believe this could be one of the most impactful waves of action from working people in generations. And we’re very focused on making sure millions of students are ready to join workers in demanding an overhaul of our political system so that it’s finally going to work for everyday people,” said Ávila-Dickson.
While some of the EPA’s deregulatory actions have already taken effect since the Trump administration took power, the proposal to repeal the Endangerment Finding is just that: a proposal. Before it goes into effect, the EPA must host several public hearings and receive public comments. Comments must be received on or before September 15, 2025, and can be made here.
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