Environmentalists Outraged at EPA for Loosening Climate Regulations

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is closing down its environmental justice and civil rights office this week as part of a dramatic overhaul of the agency.

The EPA also canceled $20 billion in climate grants, announced plans to eliminate dozens of anti-pollution regulations and is closing several of its offices nationwide.

Outrage and threats of lawsuits by environmentalists are increasing daily in response.

The Trump administration’s closure of the environmental justice and civil rights office is its latest effort to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The office is charged with getting rid of the disproportionate effect of pollution on disadvantaged communities. Its main tool is lawsuits, which have met with only moderate success.

The EPA’s nearly 170 employees in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights were placed on paid administrative leave days after President Donald Trump was sworn into office in January.

On Tuesday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he would shut down their office.

“With this action, EPA is delivering organizational improvements to the personnel structure that will directly benefit the American people and better advance the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” Zeldin said in a memo.

He also said he would cut out about 65% of the EPA’s budget to comply with guidelines from the Department of Government Efficiency. The department set a deadline of Thursday for government agencies to submit plans for another wave of mass layoffs and drastic budget reductions.

The regulatory changes planned for the EPA would revise water pollution limits from coal plants, rewrite air quality standards for small particles and alter requirements for oil and gas companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions.

An EPA press release Wednesday quoted Zeldin saying, “Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more.”

A day earlier, Zeldin announced the EPA was terminating $20 billion in grant agreements issued under the Biden administration’s “green bank” to finance clean energy projects. Zeldin said the program was undercut by fraud and waste.

Three nonprofit groups that received the grants have sued in U.S. District Court to block the cancellations.

One of them is Maryland-based Climate United Fund, which argues it is illegally being denied access to $7 billion it was awarded last year through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

Environmentalists say Zeldin is risking the health of Americans and a dangerous trend toward more climate change.

“Administrator Zeldin is promising to undo scores of health and safety standards, pulling from a wish-list from lobbyists,” said Amanda Leland, director of the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund.

Other parts of the regulatory rollback would loosen the emission limits for new automobiles as well as for fossil fuel power plants. Oil and gas producers would be allowed to emit more methane, which is a greenhouse gas.

The rollback also would ease the mercury limits from coal plants. Environmentalists say mercury is linked to brain damage, particularly in small children.

“The result will be more toxic chemicals, more cancers, more asthma attacks, and more dangers for pregnant women and their children,” Leland said. “Rather than helping our economy, it will create chaos.”

Seventeen Democrats in Congress wrote a letter to Zeldin this week warning of the consequences of his actions, particularly on economically disadvantaged communities.

“In the United States, communities across the country lack access to safe and reliable drinking water and sewer systems, and remain exposed to pollution that causes cancer and respiratory illnesses,” the lawmakers wrote. “Many of these areas were deliberately targeted due to their demographics for the siting of polluting activities.”

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