By Katy Spence
On March 12, Pres. Donald Trump’s new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin proposed a giant step backwards for public health and the environment by announcing the intention to rollback dozens of environmental protections in what is likely the most massive deregulation of public health and environmental protections in U.S. history.
While the administrator claimed to be “committed to protecting human health and the environment,” it’s clear the new EPA will be catering to the most polluting industries in the nation to the detriment of our most vulnerable populations: children, the elderly, those with chronic health conditions, and other at-risk people. The Guardian has estimated these rules would save the lives of 200,000 people in years to come.
These rollbacks include but are not limited to: reconsidering coal plant rules such as Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS); restructuring the regional haze program intended to reduce air pollution in National Parks and other cherished landscapes; eliminating the endangerment findings underlying all regulations on greenhouse gases, (such as the recently released Biden administration greenhouse gas rules)which is one way the EPA was working on climate-damaging emission; terminating environmental justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the EPA, which will harm Tribal Nations, Black people, working class people and countless others; and allowing states to take control of coal ash regulations (which has always been a pain point for the Colstrip plant).
To be blunt, this is an onslaught. But MEIC has fought hasty Trump Administration rollbacks on environmental protections before — quite successfully — and we’re ready to do it again. It’s likely this administration will be haphazard and sloppy in how it rolls back these regulations, which means they will ignore the science underlying the original rules and fail to demonstrate compelling scientific reasons for the rollbacks. Since science has proven beyond a doubt that airborne and waterborne pollutants from coal plants and other emissions sources are detrimental to human health, it will be a steep bar for the EPA to justify many of these changes. It’s a simple fact: deregulating means removing protections for children, pregnant women, the elderly, and others – all in order to protect corporate executives of some of the largest and richest industrial facilities in the nation.
Montanans overwhelmingly support protections for clean air, clean water, and a stable climate. It’s also likely that most Montanans support living without health impacts caused by preventable pollution. MEIC — and our attorneys and partners — will not let these rollbacks happen without a fight.
This article was published in the March 2025 issue of Down To Earth.
