Slash-And-Burn’s approach to the Trump Administration with federal programs has given a considerable blow to the country’s environment, but experts say that its protections’ abrogation plans won for clean air and water will also put the health of Americans directly-and their portfolios.
Two new reports from environmental surveillance groups describe how recent regulatory declines in administration, climate programs reductions and the promotion of fossil fuel production will considerably increase the cost of living for millions of people and will bring about hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.
It is in contradiction with Trump’s statements and its allies – including Elon Musk and the administrator of the environmental protection agency Lee Zeldin – that they empty the country’s climatic programs in order to facilitate regulatory costs, reduce taxes and “power the American return”.
Instead, the decline in some of the country’s main environmental guarantees could lead to nearly 200,000 additional premature deaths over the next 25 years; cause more than 10,000 additional asthma attacks each day; and cost the public six dollars for each dollar supposed to save by regulated industries, according to a recent analysis From the environmental protection network, a group based in DC made up of more than 600 former EPA workers.
“We have never seen anything like this the scale of the attack that we see on public health and EPA in particular,” said Jeremy Symons, senior EPN advisor. “It is alarming for me that these declines that will have such a deep impact on the air that we breathe and the water that we drink could get lost in all the other noise and chaos of what comes from Washington. It is beyond trouble – it’s exasperating.”
Indeed, the country’s main environmental agency has been embedded in a wave of activities in recent weeks while the administration has been a blow to its programs: Cancel grant fundsClosing the offices, dismissal of workers and targeting projects focused on air and water quality, infrastructure of electric vehicles and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions rehuing the planet.
Among the changes announced were the plans of the EPA of repeal or weaken 31 environmental regulationsIncluding a principle of rocky substratum known as “conclusion of endangerment”, which affirms that carbon dioxide emissions constitute a threat to human health and well-being.
Zeldin described the announcement in March as “the biggest and most consecutive day of the deregulation of American history”. EPN’s analysis has revealed that it has a considerable cost: the reversal of a dozen key environmental rules will erase $ 254 billion in annual public health and the environment, compared to only $ 39 billion in savings.
“This is a total assault against public health,” said Symons. He noted that the calculations are based on EPA’s own data for each of the rules at stake.
Some of the greatest damages will come from reducing efforts to maintain safe air quality, such as reversal of standards for smog, soot, mercury and other harmful pollutants, according to a separate report Released this week by the progressive research group of public policies The Center for American Progress.
Atmospheric pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels costs each American an average of $ 2,500 per year in health costs – totaling $ 820 billion per year nationally, according to the report. This includes an increase in emergency visits to cardiovascular events. Studies have shown that the particulate pollution known as PM 2.5, which is released by vehicles, industrial chimneys and forest fires, can be attributed as long as 200,000 excess deaths each year.
The estimated number of deaths and excess diseases of EPA actions is probably a sub-account due to long-term results, such as cancer, which are more difficult to quantify, said Symons.
But even short -term exposure to PM 2.5 can lead to unclear results such as higher rates of infant mortality, an increase in cardiovascular problems and childhood asthma.
“Americans deserve a government that is committed to protecting everyone’s right to breathe clean air, drinking safe water and living in healthy communities, and this administration turns their back on this fundamental freedom,” said Cathleen Kelly, a senior member with the ceiling and one of the authors of the report.
However, the EPA and the Trump administration are progressing.
“We can protect the environment and develop the economy at the same time,” the spokesman for the agency Michael Nye wrote in a statement. “In fact, the largest and most consecutive day of the deregulation of American history was a step in the right direction to ensure that EPA adheres to the main mission of the agency to protect human health and the environment, and to be able to return American.”
In recent weeks, the White House has also announced its intention to cancel more than $ 20 billion in climatic awards funded by the Biden administration and the Termination of at least 400 environmental subsidies aimed at eliminating lead poisoning from childhood, improving air quality and mitigating heat health and forest fire risks, among others.
In addition, the EPA invited industrial polluters last week to request exemptions from compliance with the rules of the Clean Act which limit emissions by Simply send an email – A displacement of environmental groups has been criticized as a “Gits Sort Card” for the major polluters of the country. The COLSTRIP power station in Montana, considered one of the country’s dirty coal plants, is Among those who applied for the collar.
It is not only the air quality that is at stake. Trump officials hope to recover the incentives of the Historical Climate Act of President Biden, the law on inflation reduction, focused on innovation and energy efficiency. According to the CAP report, it could Increase household electricity costs From more than $ 110 in 2026, threatens more than $ 500 billion in planned economic investment and amount to 1 million less jobs in 2030.
The administration in the same way reduces the financing of the Ministry of Energy and other agency programs which strive to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, in particular rumors reduces a large national initiative to develop hydrogen.
These cuts could considerably repress the country’s own energy objectives, as the four canceled “hydrogen hub” programs would have contributed to a cumulative reduction of 25 million tonnes of tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, or almost 5.5 million gas cars.
Meanwhile, the White House also seeks to Approve new liquefied natural gas terminals – A decision that would add us to dependence on fossil fuels and could increase household electricity bills by $ 100 per month, according to the report.
The EPA has minimized concerns about negative health and the financial results of its decisions.
“This is a very important change in relation to the attempts of the previous administration to close American energy and make our citizens more dependent on foreign fossil fuels, which leads to worse environmental results in the world, billions of ends of financing of many opponents of our country at the end of all Americans and economic pain for those who can the least allow it.”
Experts have noted that the effects of radical environmental changes will not be felt also, as low -income communities and colored communities experience disproportionate levels of air pollution, water quality problems and other climatic risks.
In particular, colored communities are 3.7 times more likely than white communities to live with high levels of air pollution, while blacks and Latin American are exposed 56% and 63% soot pollution in additionrespectively, which they do not produce.
However, the administration has Has closed his arm of environmental justice And canceled subsidies on which many of these communities were counting to reduce pollution, prepare for the worsening of weather events and to save money on electricity bills, the CAP report indicates.
Among the canceled cancellations, there were funds reserved to help workers’ communities to remove lead from drinking water in houses and schools, to increase 900,000 households access affordable solar energy.
Kelly, of the ceiling, said that the combination of the repeal of environmental protections and the cancellation of the financing of new programs is equivalent to a “punch” for the health and safety of the country – putting lives in danger while increasing energy and health costs.
She added that the Trump administration’s plans to reduce the EPA budget up to 65% will make the agency “impossible” to fulfill its mission to protect the air and water from the Americans.
“There is really no case to make these vital environmental protections go back,” she said.
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