By Ben Chisam.
With the recent presidential election, it’s important to anticipate the incoming administration’s approach to environmental issues. While Trump’s exact plans are unclear, we can gain some insight from Project 2025, a federal policy agenda written by former Trump officials and The Heritage Foundation.
Project 2025 is a thorough blueprint for restructuring the federal government, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Overall, the plan would greatly reduce the size and strength of the EPA to target the economic impact of environmental regulations. In practice, Project 2025 would reduce restrictions on toxic chemicals and cut federal environmental justice programs.
Project 2025 sees environmental regulations as a barrier to economic growth, and proposes fewer restrictions on pollutants. While landmark environmental policies like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act would remain in place, these statutes would be interpreted very narrowly. For example, the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) would be limited to only what is legally required by the Clean Air Act. Furthermore, they recommend revisiting the designation of PFAS (forever chemicals) as “hazardous substances” under the Superfund Law (CERCLA). This designation was put in place under the Biden administration and its reversal could have serious health consequences.
Project 2025 proposes the elimination of several EPA programs related to environmental justice, including the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) and the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP). Troublingly, the plan also discusses removing race from the EPA’s decision making process. They cite Supreme Court cases that have ruled against race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions to justify this shift. As we know, environmental injustices disproportionately affect communities of color. Therefore, it’s imperative that race continue to be considered in the distribution of environmental justice funds by the EPA.
Last week, Trump nominated former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to head the EPA. Zeldin has been a vocal advocate of Trump, but has limited experience with environmental issues. Myron Ebell, who led Trump’s EPA transition team in 2016, has described Zeldin as someone with the potential to be a “great deregulator.” Additionally, while Trump has tried to separate himself from Project 2025, recently his administration has recruited several of its key architects.
This article isn’t intended to create a sense of doom and gloom. It’s important to stay informed about what changes lie ahead, but the core of our work – grassroots community organizing – will remain the same. Our two previous posts highlight this. In Climate Change and Community Action, Leila Waid emphasizes that “even in times of great political uncertainty, we are not powerless.” In How Change Happens: A Reminder from Lois Gibbs, our founding director writes that “every struggle, every victory counts,” no matter how small. To that end, the fight continues.