A Republican President of the United States founded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. It was Richard Nixon, the only American president to resign while in office. His resignation had nothing to do with his administration’s intentions to bring the federal government’s resources to bear on protecting human health from environmental pollution.
A Policy Change For The EPA
The EPA was established to focus on industrial pollution, vehicle emissions, pesticide use, clean air and clean water, and sewage and wastewater treatment. In 2007, a Supreme Court ruling supported the EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), as air pollutants. In 2009, the court supported the U.S. administration in giving the EPA authority to address six key GHGs considered dangerous to human health and the climate. This led to the regulation of chimney stack and tailpipe emissions.
As of February 12, 2026, under the current Trump administration, GHGs are no longer a danger. All regulations on vehicles, industry, fossil fuel companies, and utilities related to emissions no longer exist. Climate-heating pollution is no longer a concern of the U.S. federal government. The federal government no longer sees the smog and pollutants from morning commutes as an issue it needs to address. On X, former President Barack Obama described the repeal as one that will make Americans “less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change.” He was joined by John Kerry, a former Presidential candidate and Secretary of State, who called the deregulation move “Orwellian” and one that will inflict “enormous damage to people and property around the world.”
Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, and likely a future Democratic candidate for President, calls the decision “reckless” and states, “it will lead to more deadly wildfires, more extreme heat deaths, more climate-driven floods and droughts, and greater threats to communities nationwide.”
The Rollback Rationale
President Trump and Lee Zeldin, his pick to run the EPA, in announcing deregulation, pointed to $1.3 trillion in savings from eliminating oversight of GHGs. Standing beside President Trump, he stated that the “EPA endangerment finding is now eliminated.”
Zeldin has little to no scientific or environmental credentials. His previous history as a Member of Congress has had him vote against EPA regulations and standards. He has opposed federal actions to fight climate change. In justifying his opposition, Zeldin has accused the EPA of overreach under previous administrations. He sees pollution as a matter for state and local communities to handle.
The science of climate change is “undecided,” states Zeldin, countering the definitive conclusions of the vast majority of climate scientists. For proof, he cites a recent U.S. Department of Energy report written by handpicked global warming denialists.
Zeldin’s view is that before his appointment, the EPA was “trying to please a few fear-mongering climate alarmists.”
Trump-Zeldin And The Dystopian Future
Through irresponsible acts by the U.S. government, our world will tackle climate change mitigation and adaptation without a leading nation responsible for it. The U.S. is the world’s second-largest GHG emitter. Through climate change denial and abdication in addressing GHGs, Zeldin and Trump are being more than reckless. They are criminals.
Dystopian futures await. If you read Stephen Markley’s “The Deluge,” you may be looking at what could be a likely future. This novel, which came out in 2023, depicts a near-future America grappling with climate change. Markley weaves science, politics, and fiction into a disturbing narrative that begins with a post-Trump administration incapable of mitigating CO₂ levels in the atmosphere from climbing past 430 parts per million by the 2030s. Global atmospheric temperatures rise beyond 1.5°C. Antarctic ice sheets destabilize. The Arctic rapidly loses sea ice. America soon feels the “tipping points” of IPCC reports: prolonged heat waves, growing wildfires, extreme rainfall and flood events, Category 5 hurricanes, superstorms, and sea level rise.
Following several people still trying to live their lives, The Deluge introduces climate threats not often discussed. At the same time, the narrative of popular resistance, ecoterrorism, and suffering feels potent and almost real.
I am surprised Trump hasn’t condemned the novel on Truth Social, or that Pam Bondi hasn’t summoned a grand jury. As for Zeldin, a shill for Trump and the fossil fuel industry, little more needs to be said.
