In Donald Trump’s reality, EPA probably no longer stands for the Environmental Protection Agency.
In his science-denying mind, it probably means the Environmental Punishment, Purge, or Plunder Agency because that is what he and his climate change-rejecting allies have been doing since coming back to power.
In the latest move to make life sicker, more dangerous, and less economically competitive, Mr. Trump’s people at the EPA are doing away with Obama and Biden Era rules designed to “limit the planet-warming pollution that power plants pump into the air while burning coal and gas.”
While this latest move will be challenged in the courts, this is another example of Mr. Trump turning away from the clean energy sustainability programs designed to make the planet and humanity healthier and advance an economic edge in clean energy over rivals like China.
In one of his latest “Truth” Social Posts, Mr. Trump, in defending his “Let’s let the Terminator become reality” position on regulating A.I., reiterated his stance that climate change is a hoax, writing:
“I am the hoax buster and right now I’m breaking another hoax-That AI is going to take over, consume, and destroy the world, and that robots will be marching into our cities and getting rid of us all. This is even wilder than the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax or the Global Warming Scam…”
A little off topic but reflective of Mr. Trump’s science-denying persona, in another post, he also said that the only thing the nation needed to address the dangers of AI is “A strong and smart (high IQ) President, and the U.S. has that in spades.”
To which Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego responded:
“If the only guardrail AI needs is a “strong and smart president,” we’re doomed.
We’re talking about mitigating the risk of extinction from AI. This moment calls for immediate Congressional oversight and regulation. I’m pushing Senate leadership to form a bipartisan Select Committee on AI to get it done.”
Responding to Trump’s turn back the clock on environmental progress, the organization Climate Mayors Executive Director, Kate Wright, released a statement that read:
“EPA has a responsibility to work alongside local leaders to protect Americans’ health, not eliminate the safeguards that protect families from deadly toxins. Americans deserve the peace of mind that their air and water are not being infiltrated with chemicals and preventable pollutants. While mayors continue to advance local initiatives to protect residents, the EPA is moving backwards. By siding with corporate interests over families, they are undermining decades of collective progress and eroding the quality of life for communities across the country.”
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said:
“Every American deserves to breathe clean air, but time and again this administration gives a green light to more pollution at the expense of our health. Everyone will be affected by their actions, but the most vulnerable among us, our kids and grandkids, will suffer the most. Today’s decision lets the nation’s biggest industrial polluters off the hook by reversing findings the agency itself established. The Clean Air Act is clear: EPA has a statutory obligation to regulate significant sources of pollution that threaten public health, and power plants are among the largest sources in the country. State and local leaders will not stop fighting for that protection.”
Democratic Political Consultant Rachel Bitecofer took a “They told you so” approach when she commented to Blog for Arizona on the latest dagger thrust into the mission of the EPA, writing:
“One thing I think gets lost in the discussion about what is happening at the EPA is just how hard-fought America’s environmental protections were in the first place.
There is a reason these laws and agencies exist. Think about Love Canal in Niagara Falls in the late 1970s: a working-class neighborhood where homes and a school had been built around a buried chemical waste dump. Toxic chemicals eventually began seeping into the surrounding community, creating serious health concerns and ultimately forcing hundreds of families from their homes. Disasters like Love Canal helped produce the modern regulatory framework we now tend to take for granted.
These protections were built over decades because Americans learned, often painfully, what happens when companies are allowed to pollute without meaningful oversight or accountability.
But the other point I would make is that none of what we are seeing now should have come as a surprise. Trump campaigned explicitly on dismantling major parts of the existing climate and environmental regulatory framework. Project 2025 laid out an extensive agenda for changing the EPA and weakening or reconsidering major climate regulations. Whatever one thinks of those policies, they were not hidden.
That is why I think the environmental movement needs to reckon seriously with how it has allocated its political pressure. I have watched environmental activists devote enormous energy to protesting Democrats over climate policy while the Republican Party has moved steadily toward deregulation, expanded fossil-fuel development, and the rollback of environmental protections.
This is particularly striking historically because the EPA itself was created under Richard Nixon. Environmental protection was not always as sharply polarized along party lines as it is today.
So for me, the lesson is not simply that the Trump administration is dismantling environmental and climate protections. It is that the political coalition seeking to do this told the country what it intended to do, and then won the power to do it. Anyone who cares about climate change, clean air, clean water, public lands, and protection from toxic pollution has to grapple with that political reality.“
Several of Arizona’s leading Democrats with a history of advancing clean energy sustainability policies also voiced their concerns.
Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan commented to Blog for Arizona:
“Yet again, Republicans are making Americans’ lives unhealthier and more dangerous just to please their wealthy benefactors. The Trump administration today rescinded a rule to limit greenhouse gas emissions. It is horrifying to see our federal government abandon its responsibility to regulate, but it is not surprising – Republicans have worked for decades to dismantle any attempt to rein in greedy corporations that exploit workers and make us pay for the externalities they have caused. This corrupt decision is yet another that allows fossil fuel companies and investors to profit while the rest of us suffer the worsening effects of climate change and extreme heat.”
Representative Yassamin Ansari posted:
Representative Adelita Grijalva issued a statement that read:
“The Trump administration is once again prioritizing corporate profits over lower utility bills and the health of working families. Instead of investing in cheaper clean energy solutions, Trump is propping up dirty and expensive fossil fuel plants in order to appease his donors. Arizonans deserve clean air and lower utility bills – not handouts to the coal industry. We should be moving forward on clean energy and stronger protections, not turning back the clock.”
Being able to breathe clean air should be a high-priority concern when voters cast their ballots in 2026 and beyond. They should pick the candidates who will make the air, earth, and water cleaner and healthier, and vote out the ones who have their heads in the sand with environmental denialism.
Or, to put it another way, to the people who supported Donald Trump despite his track record. You can not vote or do anything if you can not breathe clean air or drink clean water.
Simple as that.
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