By Zoë Read - Updated Mar. 13, 2025 7:15 pm
FILE - Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, appears before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Capitol Hill, Jan. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
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The new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to roll back dozens of air and water protections, announcing the move in a video posted on the social media site X on Wednesday. A flurry of press releases announcing each rollback accompanied the 2-minute speech.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called it a historic day for environmental deregulation that will help manufacturers and make products cheaper for consumers. In a statement, Zeldin said the goal is to drive “a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.”
“Today the green new scam ends as the EPA does its part to usher in the golden age of American success,” Zeldin said in his speech. “Our actions will lower the cost of living by making it more affordable to purchase a car, heat your home, and operate a business.”
The plan includes everything from revoking clean car rules and limits on coal-burning power plants and climate pollution, as well as rolling back protections for wetlands. Zeldin also wants to rescind the legal basis for regulating climate change under the Clean Air Act, often referred to as the “endangerment finding.”
“I’ve been told the endangerment finding is considered the Holy Grail of the climate change religion,” Zeldin said. “For me, the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation will be strictly interpreted and followed, no exceptions.”
The reversals are unprecedented in the history of environmental protection in the U.S. since the EPA was founded in 1970 under President Richard Nixon.
“It’s cartoon villainy,” said John Quigley, former head of Pennsylvania DEP under Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. “It includes trying to revive expensive coal-fired power plants by letting them release more mercury, a neurotoxin, into the atmosphere. Relaxing regulations on toxic coal ash. Allowing vehicles to pollute more. Allowing the release of more deadly particulate matter pollution. Allowing more ozone pollution. Eliminating the concept of environmental justice for communities plagued by pollution.”
One rollback includes the “good neighbor” rule, which protects states like Pennsylvania from air pollution generated in states like Ohio.
“When you read the word ‘regulation,’ you should think of the word ‘protection,’ because that’s what regulations are,” Quigley said.
Quigley said one thing Pennsylvanians can count on are state regulations, such as the Clean Streams Law and the Air Pollution Control Act that are stronger than federal guidelines, and the EPA’s deregulatory moves could be a test of whether the state strengthens other protections. But he says a good portion of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s budget is increasingly funded by federal dollars through EPA, which he worries will be cut.
“DEP is already way understaffed,” he said.
Looking at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s current budget proposal for FY 2025-2026, Quigley calculated that federal funds make up 90% of DEP’s budget if funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are included. One of the largest of those is $175 million to plug abandoned and orphaned wells.
David Hess, who led the Pennsylvania DEP under Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, agreed and emphasized that the DEP relies on federal funding for its core programs.
“This is a historic day,” Hess said, “because never in the history of EPA or the history of the United States has there ever been such a sweeping set of decisions made to deregulate industries and not protect people, people’s health and the environment. So it is a historic day, but not a good one.”
Hess said Pennsylvania would be at a disadvantage when it comes to air quality if the “good neighbor” rule was revoked.
Zeldin, in his remarks, did not say anything about protecting the environment or public health.
“Jobs will be created, especially in the U.S. auto industry, and our nation will become stronger for it,” Zeldin said.
The EPA, working with state regulators, have made a lot of progress in the past 50-plus years, said Adam Ortiz, former EPA Region 3 administrator, which includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
“We can see our skylines again,” Ortiz said. “Rivers aren’t catching on fire, but there’s a lot of catching up to do. There’s literally thousands and thousands of brownfield sites, Superfund sites, and miles of lead pipe in the ground that are still making people sick.”
Ortiz is particularly worried about the closing of the agency’s environmental justice offices.
“There’s still incredible disparities in public health,” Ortiz said. “In some census tracts, life expectancy is 10 or 15 years less than a census tract on another side of the city. So, people are going to get hurt. People are gonna get sick, and the damage and the cost of that is difficult to measure.”
Ortiz thinks the plan is a misstep, as environmental protection is popular among voters.
“Poll after poll showed that regardless of party, people support having the environment protected and having common sense rules and regulations,” Ortiz said.
The rollbacks are not a done deal, and would require public comment and likely face legal challenges.
But the Trump administration has a strong chance of prevailing in court, said Joe Manko, who served as EPA Region 3 general counsel in the 1970s and is now a partner at Manko, Gold Katcher and Fox, an environmental law firm.
“Between him and Musk, they’re withdrawing any federal financial support for EPA’s missions,” Manko said. “You now have a Supreme Court, which generally will uphold whatever Trump wants done. So where do you go?”
For Manko, it’s also personal.
“I am concerned about my grandchildren having a planet they can live on,” Manko said. “That’s how serious it is. And every day, there’s another problem, whether it’s fires or storms, all of which, in many instances, can be traced to climate change.”
Officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control did not respond to requests for comment.
