The 31 actions are part of what Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin called "the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in US history," as he promised to "unleash American energy" and "revitalize the American auto industry."
Among the most significant of them is revisiting a 2024 rule that requires coal-fired plants to eliminate nearly all their carbon emissions or commit to shutting down altogether, a cornerstone of former Democratic president Joe Biden's climate agenda.
Hailed by environmental groups as a "gamechanger," the regulations were set to take effect from 2032 and would have also required new, high capacity gas-fired plants to slash their carbon dioxide output by the same amount -- 90 percent -- achievable only through carbon capture technology.
The Biden administration estimated the rule would prevent 1.4 billion metric tons of carbon entering the atmosphere through the year 2047, equivalent to nearly one year of total greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector in 2022.
- 'Polluters are celebrating' -
"Corporate polluters are celebrating today because Trump's EPA just handed them a free pass to spew unlimited climate pollution, consequences be damned," said Charles Harper, of the nonprofit Evergreen Action.
President Trump has long dismissed climate change as a "scam" and his second administration has begun enacting sweeping staff cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), vital to the nation's climate research efforts.
The new deregulation package also targets stricter vehicle emissions standards set to come into force by 2027, which Trump has derided as an "electric vehicle mandate."
Another major move involves redefining what constitutes "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act.
Zeldin's EPA argues that the Biden administration had failed to align with a 2023 Supreme Court ruling, which held that only "relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water," such as streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans -- should be covered.
- Mass layoffs expected -
Environmental group Earthjustice warned that it excluded tens of millions of acres of wetlands, vital ecosystems that filter water and provide flood protection, as well as millions of miles of small streams that provide drinking water and help generate tourism.
The EPA is also set to eliminate the nation's environmental justice offices that address pollution in low-income and minority communities across the United States, including Louisiana's infamous "Cancer Alley," which accounts for around a quarter of US petrochemical production.
"President Trump wants us to help usher in a golden age in America that is for all Americans, regardless of race, gender, background," Zeldin told reporters.
But Matthew Tejada of the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council said "Trump's EPA is taking us back to a time of unfettered pollution across the nation, leaving every American exposed to toxic chemicals, dirty air and contaminated water."
Grants that EPA has moved to cancel were "helping rural Virginia coal communities prepare for extreme flooding, installing sewage systems on rural Alabama homes, and turning an abandoned, polluted site in Tampa, Florida into a campus for healthcare, job training, and a small business development," added Tejada, who led EPA's environmental justice office under Biden.
Zeldin's EPA budget is expected to be reduced by 65 percent and the agency is preparing for mass layoffs.
Trump cuts environment program for low-income, minority communities
Washington (AFP) Mar 12, 2025 -
US President Donald Trump's administration is set to eliminate environmental justice offices that address pollution in low-income and minority communities across the United States, including Louisiana's "Cancer Alley."
The move, which will impact the agency's 10 regional offices and headquarters, was first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Lee Zeldin on Wednesday.
"The problem is that in the name of environmental justice, a fortune has been sent to left-wing activist groups," Zeldin told reporters.
"President Trump wants us to help usher in a golden age in America that is for all Americans, regardless of race, gender, background," he added.
Environmental groups reacted with anger.
"President Trump and his allies have no regard for the well-being of people living in America and care only about protecting the profits of polluters," said Chitra Kumar, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"This abhorrent move will leave those living, working, studying, and playing near polluting industries, smog-forming traffic, and contaminated waterways and soil, with little support from the very agency they rely on to enforce protective law."
Former president Joe Biden made environmental justice a central pillar of his green agenda.
His Justice40 initiative -- since rolled back by Trump -- aimed to direct 40 percent of federal investments in climate, clean energy, and affordable housing to historically marginalized communities.
The Inflation Reduction Act, Biden's signature climate law, allocated $3 billion to the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, which was established under Republican former president George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Zeldin's EPA on Monday announced it was cutting 400 grants totaling $1.7 billion related to environmental justice initiatives.
Last week, Trump's Justice Department also announced it was dropping a lawsuit on behalf of the EPA against Denka Performance Elastomer concerning its neoprene manufacturing facility in LaPlace, Louisiana.
The plant is located in a stretch of Louisiana known as "Cancer Alley," which accounts for around a quarter of US petrochemical production and has among the highest cancer rates in the country.
Zeldin's EPA plans to cut 65 percent of its roughly 15,000 staff, leaving around 5,000 employees.
The former Republican congressman said there were a "few hundred" probationary employees that had already departed, and the remaining staff were being asked to justify their positions.
"I want to know what every employee would define as their job description, what they believe their job to be, who they believe is their supervisor, what they believe their supervisor's job is," he said, adding these answers would help determine the next rounds of staffing cuts.
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