The Rollback of Six Critical Environmental Regulations Will Increase U.S. Climate Pollution by More Than 200 Million Metric Tons Each Year

It is challenging to keep track of the Trump administration’s many rollbacks of environmental and health protections. Dozens of rollbacks are in process, and new ones are surfacing all the time.

A numbness about these rollbacks can set in. Our minds are wired to discount continued torrents of bad news. And knowing that state attorneys general and environmental NGOs are fighting against key rollbacks, and winning some important victories in the courts, can lull us into a sense of uneasy complacency.

The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center recently issued a Special Report that cuts through the fog and provides a stark summary of the stakes involved in the administration’s anti-environment strategy. The Special Report — “Climate & Health Showdown in the Courts: State Attorneys General Prepare to Fight” — focuses on the environmental and health implications of a central strand of the administration’s rollbacks: the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The report zeros in on six specific rollbacks that target four industries that together are responsible for nearly half of the U.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions — the automotive industry, the oil & gas industry, the coal industry, and the landfill industry.

The key take-away from the Special Report is that the administration’s actions on these six rules would, if finalized, completely unwind legally required reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and, instead, would increase annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 200 million metric tons (CO2e) annually by 2025. That’s equivalent to adding 44 million more cars on the road, burning 1 million railcars’ worth of coal, or burning 20 billion more gallons of gasoline each and every year.

Simply put, at the very moment when our nation needs to dial back the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change, the administration is intent on turning the dial in the wrong direction, and increasing climate pollution. And the scale of this malicious damage — taking nearly half of all U.S. emissions sources out of the climate fight — is breathtaking.

The legal and health implications of these particular rollbacks are also stark. On the legal side, as explained in the report, the Clean Air Act requires that the EPA reduce greenhouse gases from major industry sectors. The Obama administration initiated and/or finalized the six pertinent greenhouse gas-reducing rules highlighted in the report. Flouting the law, the Trump administration has either reopened these rules with the intent of rolling them back (in case of cars and light trucks; new oil & gas sources; coal plants; and landfills), vowed to reopen them (truck gliders), or refused to move forward with legally required reductions (existing oil & gas sources). A showdown on the legality of these moves will begin in earnest when, in the coming weeks, EPA publishes replacement rules that would increase greenhouse gases emitted by cars and trucks, oil & gas, and coal.

On the health side, the administration’s actions also are triggering increased levels of conventional pollutants, like particulate matter and smog. These additional pollutants are causing literally thousands of premature deaths, hundreds of thousands more asthma attacks, and countless additional missed school and work days. It’s all detailed in the Special Report, using the administration’s own data. And it deserves to be emphasized that these adverse health effects put the most vulnerable Americans, including children, the elderly, and the economically disadvantaged, directly in harm’s way.

So, yes, there’s a need to be clear-eyed, and worried, about these impending developments. And grateful that state attorneys general are on the case.