‘Cartoon villainy’: Former regulators say EPA’s planned rollbacks would reverse 50 years of environmental progress
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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.”