EarthTalk – Is Trump slashing 1970s clean air laws?

Title card for the EarthTalk environmental column showing a green glass globe.

Dear EarthTalk:
Is it true that Trump is working actively to cut back clean air protections that have been in place since the 1970s?
H.L., via e-mail

Yes, Trump is moving fast to unwind federal air-pollution and climate safeguards, with many changes to take effect before Trump leaves office in January 2029. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), led by Administrator Lee Zeldin, says the effort will cut regulatory costs and expand consumer and industry choice; health and environmental groups say it will mean dirtier air and more disease.

The biggest step came in February 2026, when EPA rescinded the 2009 Endangerment Finding—the scientific and legal determination underpinning federal regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles—and simultaneously repealed greenhouse-gas standards for light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Zeldin called it “the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” saying EPA expects more than $1.3 trillion in regulatory savings.

PROMO Environment - Pollution City Field Smoke Sky - iStock - leolintang — © iStock - leolintang

Trump’s EPA is also weakening protections against pollutants people breathe directly. In February 2026, the agency repealed Biden-era upgrades to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal-fired power plants, eliminating tighter limits on mercury from lignite plants, tougher particulate-matter controls and continuous particulate-emissions monitoring. American Lung Association President Harold Wimmer responded: “EPA’s decision to reverse a rule that would better protect children from mercury and other toxic substances is inconceivable.”

Trump has also begun dismantling other pillars of clean-air policy. EPA missed a February 2026 legal deadline to designate which areas fail the strengthened national standard for fine-particle pollution, delaying the process that requires polluted regions to clean up their air. It is also reconsidering the “Good Neighbor Plan,” intended to curb ozone-forming pollution that blows across state lines, and has proposed loosening some state requirements for controlling ozone pollution. Critics see a systematic retreat from EPA’s public-health mission. Earthjustice attorney Nicholas Morales says the mercury rollback “will result in higher levels of mercury, soot and other hazardous pollution into our air and communities.”

Whether all these changes remain in force by 2028 is uncertain. Environmental and health organizations have already filed lawsuits challenging major rollbacks, including the Endangerment Finding and mercury standards, meaning federal courts could ultimately determine how much of Trump’s agenda survives.