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EPA

Revoking EPA’s Endangerment Finding Isn’t Simple

August 1, 2025 Patrick Parenteau, DeSmog. , , ,
Most of the United States’ major climate regulations are underpinned by one important document: It’s called the endangerment finding, and it concludes that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to human health and welfare. The Trump administration is trying to eliminate it. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced on July 29, that the EPA would soon publish a proposed rule to rescind the endangerment finding and allow 45 days for public comment. A draft released by the EPA of the proposal argues that the agency didn’t have the authority to issue the endangerment finding in 2009 or regulations based on it.

EPA Workers Investigated For Defending Its Mission

July 11, 2025 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. , , ,
After signing a critical letter to their boss, 139 EPA workers were put under investigation and on a 2-week paid administrative leave July 3. The workers wrote to EPA administrator Lee Zeldin that the mission of their agency is being undermined by the Trump administration’s actions and asked Zeldin to back away from “harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise” and re-commit “to his oath to protect the health of the American people and our environment.” Under Zeldin, the EPA is reconsidering bans on asbestos, weakening rules on mercury, and extending deadlines to remove cancer-causing chemicals from drinking water.

EPA Employees Send ‘Declaration Of Dissent’ Over Policies Under Trump

June 30, 2025 Melina Walling, AP News. , , ,
A group of Environmental Protection Agency employees on Monday published a declaration of dissent from the agency’s policies under the Trump administration, saying they “undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.” More than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation, according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA scientists or academics to also sign. The latter figure includes 20 Nobel laureates.

An Open Letter From EPA Staff To The American Public

March 21, 2025 anonymous EPA employees, DeSmog. , , ,
The Trump administration is making accusations of fraud, waste, and abuse associated with federal environmental justice programs under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as justification for firing federal workers and defunding critical environmental programs. But the real waste, fraud, and abuse would be to strip away these funds from the American people. As current and former employees at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who developed and implemented the agency’s environmental justice funding and grant programs, we want to offer our first-hand insights about the efficiency and importance of this work.

Supreme Court Weakens Rules On Discharging Raw Sewage Into Water

March 5, 2025 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , , , , ,
The United States Supreme Court has voted five to four to weaken rules that govern how much pollution is discharged into the country’s water supply, undermining the 1972 Clean Water Act. The case involved San Francisco suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after the city was found to have violated the terms of a permit required for the discharge of wastewater pollution into the Pacific Ocean, reported The Washington Post. San Francisco officials argued that the EPA’s authority had been exceeded due to vague permit rules that made it impossible to tell when a line had been crossed.

Meatpacking Plants Pollute Poor, Non-White Communities Disproportionately

January 4, 2025 John McCracken and Monica Cordero, In These Times. , , , , ,
Postville, Iowa — In March, officials in Postville shut down its water treatment facility for two days as city employees worked to prevent polluted water from a meatpacking plant from entering the water supply.  Agri Star Meat and Poultry had discharged more than 250,000 gallons of untreated food processing waste — blood, chemicals and other solid materials — into the city’s wastewater system. Chris Hackman, the city’s wastewater operator for the past 25 years, said it was one of the worst incidents he could remember.  “We’ve never seen anything like that,” he said. 

EPA Found No Threat Of Air Pollution During An Oil Spill In Louisiana

September 28, 2024 Julie Dermansky and Sharon Kelly, DeSmog. , , , , , , ,
The pungent smell of oil woke Gerald and Janet Crappel on the morning of Saturday, July 27. Stepping outside their home on the banks of Bayou Lafourche in Raceland, Louisiana, they spotted the fumes’ source: crude oil from Crescent Midstream’s Raceland pump station was gushing into the picturesque waterway, sparsely lined with homes and fishing boats, via a stormwater canal directly across from their home. The oil’s fumes were thick that morning. “It choked you,” Gerald told DeSmog correspondent Julie Dermansky, who documented the incident as it unfolded. Before cleanup crews contained the spill, reportedly 34,000 gallons of crude oil, a slick stretched for eight miles, just past the area’s drinking water system.

The Air In Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Is Even Worse Than Expected

June 22, 2024 Naveena Sadasivam, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
Since the 1980s, the 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that connects New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been known as “Cancer Alley.” The name stems from the fact that the area’s residents have a 95 percent greater chance of developing cancer than the average American. A big reason for this is the concentration of industrial facilities along the corridor — particularly petrochemical manufacturing plants, many of which emit ethylene oxide, an extremely potent toxin that is considered a carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency and has been linked to breast and lung cancers.

Whistleblower: EPA Didn’t Follow Normal Procedures In East Palestine

May 21, 2024 Rich McHugh, NBC4 WCMH-TV. , , , , , ,
An EPA whistleblower has stepped forward, saying the Environmental Protection Agency deviated from normal procedures when testing for chemical contamination after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. On Feb. 6, 2023, officials in East Palestine, Ohio, vented and burned five tank cars full of vinyl chloride after a Norfolk Southern train derailed near the town. Three days later, the Environmental Protection Agency gave the all-clear for evacuated residents to return to the area. Immediately, people in the area began complaining of sickness and rashes. “I undressed to get into the shower, and I had a rash all over the side of my face on both sides and all over my chest,” said resident Katlyn Schwarzwaelder.

Ten Times More Toxic Pesticide Could End Up On Our Food Under Proposal

April 24, 2024 Sharon Lerner, ProPublica. , , , ,
When you bite into a piece of celery, there’s a fair chance that it will be coated with a thin film of a toxic pesticide called acephate. The bug killer — also used on tomatoes, cranberries, Brussels sprouts and other fruits and vegetables — belongs to a class of compounds linked to autism, hyperactivity and reduced scores on intelligence tests in children. But rather than banning the pesticide, as the European Union did more than 20 years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed easing restrictions on acephate.

EPA’s New Rule Aims To Cut Toxic Emissions

April 15, 2024 Julie Dermansky, DeSmog. , , ,
Leaders in the fight for clean air from Louisiana’s Cancer Alley joined the Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator Michael Regan on April 9 in Washington, D.C., for the announcement of a new rule governing air toxics-spewing chemical plants. The rule is intended to prevent cancer in surrounding low-income and minority communities. The announcement represents a milestone for environmental justice in communities historically overburdened by air-toxics pollution. But a growing number of proposed industrial projects threaten to further pollute the mostly low-income Black neighborhoods along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Arizona Court Cancels EPA’s Approval Of Dicamba Pesticide

February 9, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , , , , , ,
In a win for farmers and endangered plants and wildlife, an Arizona district court has revoked the approval of the destructive pesticide dicamba, saying the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law when it allowed it to be on the market. Dicamba-based weedkillers have been widely used on soybean and cotton crops genetically engineered by Bayer (formerly Monsanto), a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity — who brought the lawsuit — said. “This is a vital victory for farmers and the environment,” said George Kimbrell, legal director for the Center for Food Safety and counsel in the case, in the press release.

Ex-EPA Scientist Calls Pollution Regulations A ‘Smokescreen’

January 27, 2024 Akičita Šunka-Wakaŋ Ska, Unicorn Riot. , , , , ,
Minneapolis, MN — On January 11, 2024, community members gathered to discuss the future of the Smith Foundry in Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood. The iron-casting facility has been found to violate health regulations, thereby likely threatening the well-being of people living nearby. In November, residents had called for the closure of the foundry after discovering records from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicating that the company had been exceeding Minnesota emission limits of particulate matter since 2018 — without notifying the state. Despite the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) pledging to meet regularly with the community, MPCA authorities were absent from the meeting, citing a “conflict of interest” and a lack of staff.

Victims Of The East Palestine Train Disaster Still Fighting For Their Lives

August 14, 2023 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , , , , ,
On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern Railroad train carrying 150 cars, some containing toxic chemicals, derailed in the small town of East Palestine, Ohio on the border with Pennsylvania. The residents in the immediate area were evacuated but the 100,000 gallons of chemicals, including vinyl chloride, that spilled spread throughout the region. Now, over six months later, many residents still cannot return to their homes. Hilary Flint of Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, the vice president of the Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment joined Clearing the FOG to describe what happened, the failures of the local, state and federal governments to provide what affected residents need and how they are organizing to pressure President Biden to grant Governor DeWine's request for an emergency declaration and more.

Polluters Rely On Old Rhetoric To Block Clean Energy Future

August 4, 2023 Rebecca John, DeSmog. , , ,
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering proposals aimed at reducing climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing coal and gas-fueled power plants. Power plants are the second-largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, and the pollution standards, which are open for public comment until August 8, will mark a new milestone in climate action. But the United States’ biggest polluters and their political allies are pushing back — just as they have resisted every other landmark shift in the 60-year history of federal air pollution control.
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