Reducing Regulations to Benefit the Rich
2016
2016-12-31 During his podcast, RFK warned that Trump will try to eliminate environmental protections including things like safe water.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/21/politics/kfile-rfk-jr-trump-critique
2017
2017-01-26 US National Parks began posting on social media in protest of Trump’s policy on climate change. This came after Trump signed executive orders to push forward with two major oil pipelines, archived climate change information to the obamawhitehouse.archives website and threatened to take down EPA websites.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38745829
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38746608
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-record/climate
2018
2018-03-14 The Heritage Foundation published an article calling for the repeal of NEPA, which is the National Environmental Policy Act requiring federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of public works projects. The article reads, “On February 12, 2018, the Trump administration unveiled a $1.5 trillion initiative to repair the nation’s roads, bridges, airports and railways. The first step should be to reduce the regulatory barriers that impede infrastructure projects and vastly inflate their costs”.
2019
2019-06-27 Ohio House Bill 6 “Clean Air Program” was seen as a bailout to provide subsidies to very specific companies in Ohio like FirstEnergy. Context: FirstEnergy dumped arsenic coal waste in 2013.
https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/133/hb6
https://www.dallashartman.com/blog/firstenergy-dumping-waste-in-beaver-county/
https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/towns-dispute-where-to-dump-coal-waste/
2024
2024-07-02 During an interview on Breaking Points, RFK talked about regulatory agencies in the hands of corporations and stated, quote, “When a regulatory agency becomes captured by corporations, it also functions to widen corporate power”.
2025 January
2025-01-20 Page 377 of Project 2025 outlines Trump’s goal to boost the coal industry, which aligned with him signing an executive order to do so.
2025-01-20 Trump rescinded The Presidential Memorandum Withdrawal of Certain Areas off the United States Arctic Coast of the Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Gas Leasing.
2025-01-20 Trump rescinded Executive Order 14096 Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All.
2025-01-20 Trump rescinded Executive Order 14030 Climate-Related Financial Risk.
2025-01-20 Trump rescinded Executive Order 14037 Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks.
2025-01-20 Trump rescinded Executive Order 14082 Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
2025 March
2025-03-12 The Trump administration made huge cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. These cuts will affect things like waste cleanup initiatives, recycling programs, and prevention of illegal dumping. In a statement on the EPA news release website, the administrator said, “Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission…” by reconsidering regulations on power plants, oil, gas, greenhouse gas reporting, toxic standards, and other regulatory guidelines that were designed to protect the environment.
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-biggest-deregulatory-action-us-history
2025-03-21 The Trump administration dismantled the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22042025/epa-announces-plans-to-terminate-nearly-300-employees/
2025 April
2025-04-19 The Trump administration proposed a rule to change the interpretation of the Endangered Species Act so harming habitats of endangered species would no longer equally mean harm is done to the species itself.
2025 June
2025-06-29 Trump’s EPA lowered efficiency standards on appliances. This agenda is outlined on page 378 of Project 2025.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/29/trump-energy-star-homeowner-appliances-electric-bill-cost.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/07/energy-star-program-ends-utility-bills
https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
2025 July
2025-07-04 As outlined in Project 2025, Trump signed a sweeping reconciliation bill HR-1 that would add $3.3T (trillion) to the national debt while eliminating renewable energy subsidies by modifying or terminating clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
2025-07-09 Trump revoked Biden’s Executive Order 14036 on Promoting Competition in the American Economy . For context, only 4 major meatpackers control over 80% of the US meat industry. With fewer meat packers bidding for cattle in the U.S., ranchers have less leverage. The Biden administration tried to correct this in 2024 to reduce monopolies by including initiatives to empower the USDA to stop abusive practices. Trump squashed the order preventing food system consolidation, which gives farmers less leverage while increasing our food prices.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/13/trump-revokes-biden-order-economy
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-revocation-biden-harris-executive-order-competition
2025-07-10 Trump ended subsidies for electric vehicles.
2025-07-29 The Trump administration attempted to repeal a 2009 EPA endangerment finding that greenhouse gas emissions are air pollutants that endanger public health and welfare.
https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/tracker/greenhouse-gas-endangerment-finding/
https://nam.org/epa-moves-to-rescind-2009-greenhouse-gas-endangerment-finding-34497/
2025 August
2025-08-19 Trump pushed back on a court decision to temporarily block the Resolution Copper project, blaming the delay on the “radical left”. For context, the Resolution Copper project is a widely controversial project which aims to develop copper mining upon sacred and protected Native American holy sites protected by treaties since the 1800’s. Also noteworthy, China has invested billions of dollars in this project, so the argument is where does the responsibility lay, with wealthy Chinese investors or the American people.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/copper-trump-slams-anti-american-pushback-over-arizona-project.html
2025 September
2025-09-10 Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave an insightful presentation into “dark money” and systemic risk to the economy when an ecosystem declines.
2025 October
2025-10-24 Open AI announced plans to sell erotica to boost sales. For context, AI has a massive environmental impact.
https://apnews.com/article/ai-erotica-chatgpt-openai-sam-altman-d52e00cedf34a8120af7af66981da295
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2025/10/15/openai-chatgpt-erotica-sam-altman/86716163007/
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/15/erotica-coming-to-chatgpt-this-year-says-openai-ceo-sam-altman.html
https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117
https://hbr.org/2024/07/the-uneven-distribution-of-ais-environmental-impacts
2025-10-24 Trump opened the pristine arctic national wildlife refuge for oil drilling.
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5584883/trump-alaska-wildlife-refuge-oil-gas-drilling
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/23/oil-gas-drilling-alaska-national-wildlife-refuge
2025 November
2025-11-07 The Guardian uncovered a climate change denial campaign by ExxonMobil called “Atlas”.
2025-11-20 The Trump administration greatly expanded offshore sales of oil and gas and continued to tout Trump’s “drill-baby-drill” agenda.
https://www.heritage.org/energy/commentary/new-wave-american-offshore-energy
2025-11-23 Multiple doctors and other health professionals signed a petition against EPA Lee Zeldin, stating he was pursuing deregulation on greenhouse gases and the 2009 Endangerment finding.
OFFICIAL PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-ask-epa-administrator-lee-zeldin-to-regulate-chemicals
https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/a-maha-driven-petition-wants-epa-administrator-lee-zeldin-fired
https://www.momscleanairforce.org/epa-head-zeldin-must-go
2025 December
2025-12-03 Trump announced his administration would be rolling back fuel efficiency standards on automobiles and suggested that lowering carbon emissions put tremendous upward pressure on car prices. They also reported they would reclassify crossover vehicles and small SUVs as passenger automobiles instead of light trucks. The rollback would change fuel standards from 50mpg to around 35.
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/03/nx-s1-5630389/trump-administration-rolls-back-fuel-economy-standards
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-roll-back-biden-era-vehicle-fuel-efficiency/story?id=128080691
2025-12-19 U.S. Representative Bruce Westerman of Arkansas and Representative Jared Golden of Maine introduced the SPEED Act (Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development – HR 4776) to overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act. For context, NEPA was enacted in 1970 to force businesses to disclose their environmental impacts before they can receive funding and permits.
https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns/need-speed
2026 January
2026-01-14 The EPA stated they would stop calculating how much money is saved in health care costs and how many deaths were prevented by air pollution reduction measures.
2026 February
2026-02-12 Trump reversed Obama-era regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/12/climate/trump-repeals-epa-endangerment-finding
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-rolls-back-landmark-policy-regulating-greenhouse-emissions
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-biggest-deregulatory-action-us-history
https://climate.law.columbia.edu/climate-deregulation-tracker
2026 March
2026-03-31 (context) US Forest Service Tom Schultz announced more cuts to the Forest Service, claiming it is a “common sense” initiative. The cuts would shutter 75% of research, reduce wildlife and climate change monitoring, reduce oversight of mining and logging, shut down 9 regional offices, and move the headquarters out of DC.
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/4/20/forest_service
https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/reorganization
2026 April
2026-04-02 Argentina’s lawmakers, led by Javier Milei, pushed reforms to remove protections on freshwater reserves and glaciers to allow for drilling.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y72e6x554o
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2026/04/02/argentina-reforms-glacier-protection-law/
2026-04-16 The senate voted to lift a federal ban on mining upstream from Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/news/senate-just-greenlit-mine-boundary-waters-minnesota/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIqJFcCnhkY
PAY WALL https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/climate/boundary-waters-senate-vote.html
2026-04-29 The Senate voted to open up pristine Minnesota boundary waters in Canada for mining and drilling.
https://www.wpr.org/news/why-mining-minnesotas-boundary-waters-matters-wisconsin
https://spokesman-recorder.com/2026/04/29/boundary-waters-copper-mining-ban-lifted/
[https://www.fox9.com/news/bwca-mining-ban-ends-trump-april-2026](https://www.fox9.com/news/bwca-mining-ban-ends-trump-april-2026)
https://www.savetheboundarywaters.org/action-center
https://earthjustice.org/feature/boundary-waters-canoe-area-wilderness-photos
2026-04-29 The Trump administration proposed a rule to cut back the Endangered Species Act to allow more industry, drilling and mining. It was only after several voiced concerns from both parties that they delayed the vote.
https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/tracker/endangered-species-act-regulations/
https://www.humaneworld.org/en/blog/trump-administration-gut-endangered-species-act
2026 May
2026-05-18 The EPA proposed to eliminate drinking water limits for 4 forever-chemicals set by the Biden administration in 2024. The EPA will allow water utilities to extend their compliance deadline from 2029 to 2031.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/18/trump-administration-epa-pfas-water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCZJyiy0veE&list=WL&index=6
2026-05-21 Trump rolled back refrigerant regulations aimed to reduce emissions, claiming the rollback was a means to reduce grocery prices.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/21/trump-epa-refrigerant-rule-grocery-costs