While the Trump administration’s novel approach to federal programs has hit the country’s environment quite a bit, experts say plans to tackle the company’s protections for clean air and water put American health and their wallets directly at risk.
Two new reports from the Environmental Watchdog Group outline how the administration’s recent regulatory rollback, reduced climate programs and accelerated fossil fuel production can significantly increase the cost of living for millions of people and lead to hundreds of thousands of premature births.
It contradicts the claims made by Trump and his allies (including Elon Musk and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin), robbing the country’s climate program to ease regulatory costs, tax cuts and the “power of a great American comeback.”
Instead, some rollbacks of the country’s major environmental protection measures could lead to around 200,000 additional premature deaths over the next 25 years. It causes over 10,000 additional asthma attacks every day. A recent analysis of the Environmental Protection Network, a DC-based group consisting of over 600 former EPA workers, shows that it costs the public $6 for every dollar that appears to have been saved by a regulated industry.
“We’re excited to be able to help you get the better of our customers,” said Jeremy Simmons, senior advisor to EPN. “It’s amazing to me that these rollbacks have a huge impact on the air we breathe and the water we drink can be lost in all the other noise and what comes from Washington. It’s beyond the troublesome.
In fact, the country’s top environmental agencies have been obsessed with the surge in activity over the last few weeks as the administration hit a programme to target projects targeting grant cancellations, workers closures, air and water quality, electric vehicle infrastructure, and greenhouse gas emissions spread across the planet.
Among the changes announced was the EPA’s plan to abolish or weaken 31 environmental regulations, including the bedrock principle known as “hazard detection,” which confirms that carbon emissions pose a threat to human health and welfare.
Zeldin described the announcement in March as “the biggest and most consequential deregulation day in US history.” An analysis of the EPN showed that it would be quite costly. Rolling back a dozen key environmental rules will erase $254 billion in annual public health and environment profits compared to just $39 billion in savings.
“This is a full attack on public health,” Simmons said. He pointed out that the calculations are based on EPA’s own data for each rule that is at risk.
Another report released this week by the progressive public policy research group The American Progress Center, some of the biggest harms come from reducing efforts to maintain safe air quality, including rollback criteria for Smog, Soot, Mercury and other harmful pollutants.
Air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels costs an average of $2,500 a year for each American’s healthcare costs. That’s a national total of $820 billion a year, the report says. This includes increased emergency room visits for cardiovascular events. Research shows that particle contamination, known as PM 2.5, released by vehicles, industrial chimneys and wildfires, can result from as many as 200,000 deaths each year.
The estimated number of excess deaths and illnesses caused by EPA behavior is likely undercounts, as long-term outcomes such as cancer are difficult to quantify, Symons said.
However, even short-term exposure to PM 2.5 can lead to adverse health outcomes, including increased infant mortality, increased cardiovascular problems, and pediatric asthma.
“Americans deserve a government that promises to protect the rights of all people to breathe clean air, drink safe water and live in healthy communities. This administration has turned its back on its fundamental freedoms.”
However, the EPA and the Trump administration are moving forward.
“We can protect the environment and grow our economy at the same time,” agency spokesman Michael Nye wrote in a statement. “In fact, the biggest and most consequential day of deregulation in American history was a step in the right direction for the EPA to protect human health and the environment and protect the institution’s core mission of promoting America’s great American comeback.”
In recent weeks, the White House announced plans to cancel more than $2 billion in climate awards funded by the Biden administration and ending at least 400 environmental grants aimed at eliminating lead poisoning in childhood, improving air quality and mitigating the health risks of heat and wildfires.
Additionally, last week, the EPA invited industrial polluters to request a waiver from the Clean Air Act Rule, which limits emissions by sending emails. This is an environmental group that has been criticized as a “non-intrusive card” for large-scale polluters in the country. Montana’s Corstrip Power Plant is considered one of the nation’s dirty coal plants and is one of those who applied for the pass.
Air quality isn’t the only thing at risk. Trump officials hope to regain incentives from President Biden’s groundbreaking climate law, Inflation Reduction Act, towards energy innovation and efficiency. Doing so would increase household electricity costs by more than $110 in 2026, threatening more than $500 billion in planned economic investments, and reducing the number of millions of jobs in 2030, according to the CAP report.
The administration is similarly cutting funding for the Department of Energy and other institutional programs that work to reduce the state’s dependence on fossil fuels, including reducing rumors on major national initiatives to develop hydrogen.
These cuts could significantly rebound the country’s clean energy targets as four cancelled “hydrogen hub” programs contributed to a cumulative 25 million tonnes reduction of 25 million tonnes each year, or a volume of around 5.5 million gas-powered vehicles.
Meanwhile, the White House is also looking to approve a new liquefied natural gas terminal. This is an additional move to reliance on fossil fuels, which could raise household electricity bills for $100 a month, the report found.
The EPA downplayed concerns about the negative health and financial outcomes of the decision.
“This is a very important change that sought to shut down the energy of America in previous administrations and make citizens more dependent on foreign fossil fuels, which has degraded environmental outcomes worldwide, and remembers the economic pain of billions of people at the expense of all Americans, providing new funds, and at least able to afford it.
Experts noted that the impact of drastic environmental changes does not feel equal as low-income and communities of color experience unbalanced levels of air pollution, water quality issues and other climate hazards.
In particular, communities of color are 3.7 times more likely to live with higher levels of air pollution than white communities, while blacks and Latinos are exposed to soot pollution at 56% and 63% respectively, respectively, than production.
Still, the administration has shut down the environmental justice sector and canceled subsidies that many of these communities hope to reduce pollution, prepare for worsening weather events and save money on electricity bills.
Among the planned cancellations are funds allocated to help working-class communities remove lead from home and school drinking water, increase tree canopies and cool down neighborhoods, and upgrade homes for energy efficiency.
Cap’s Kelly said the combination of elimination of environmental protection and cancellation of funds for the new programme would amount to a “one-two punch” of the country’s health and safety.
She added that the Trump administration’s plan to cut the EPA’s budget by up to 65% would make it “impossible” for agencies to fulfill their mission to protect American air and water.
“It’s not really going to be done to roll back these life-saving environmental protections,” she said.
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