EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has launched “the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” involving more than 30 environmental protection rules. He says it will result in “the Great American Comeback.”
It’s more like the great American backslide into the 1960s, when dirty air, massive oil spills, and a burning river demonstrated what happens when corporations prioritize profits over people and the planet.
In those days, a book about dangerous pesticides served as a wake-up call for the government to regulate the industry. The Trump administration is influenced by another book, Project 2025, which calls for weakening or killing the rules that protect public health and the environment.
As the Trump administration implements recommendations like these, it boasts that laissez-faire government will save money. However, it doesn’t mention the many costs of deregulation. According to the Associated Press, the rules Zeldin is targeting prevent 30,000 deaths and save society $275 billion every year they remain in effect.
EPA regulations are designed to prevent industry’s pursuit of profits from causing maladies such as cancer, asthma, strokes, heart disease, pneumonia, neurological disorders, gastrointestinal problems, kidney and liver diseases, skin disease, bronchitis, and more. They protect the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.
If all corporations had social consciences, or if all industries were self-regulated, there would be little need for government regulations. But as one organization that trains business executives observes, the corporate sector “harbors the capacity for immense damage when ethical lines are crossed. The biggest business scandals in history…driven by greed, negligence, or the pursuit of unchecked growth, reveal the vulnerabilities that exist within corporate structures and the profound consequences when integrity is compromised.”
Numerous scandals have proven this point. One of the biggest in memory was the tobacco industry’s behavior in the 1990s. The industry knew its products were linked to cancer, and that nicotine was addictive, but it denied both of those realities. Its advertising strategy was to encourage young people to smoke (presumably because its older customers were dying of smoking-related diseases).
State attorneys general sued the industry to recover health-care costs. The result in 1998 was the largest civil litigation settlement in American history. More than 40 cigarette companies and trade associations eventually agreed to pay states billions of dollars annually for as long as the companies continued selling cigarettes.
Today, the fossil-energy industry has employed a similar tactic of denial and distraction with regard to global climate change. The difference is that all people of all ages and countries are harmed, not just those who consume its products.
Several states and cities are suing major oil producers for damages. In this case, however, the president and the Republican-controlled Congress are siding with the polluters and against the health and welfare of the people who elected them.
Zeldin says, “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.” But their dagger is actually aimed at the heart of the American people. Nearly 316 million Americans — 95.5 percent of us – live in counties that have suffered major weather disasters since 2011. Disasters displaced 2.5 million Americans from their homes in 2023. Three of four Americans say they have experienced extreme weather in the last 12 months.
The broader issue is what the American people deserve and expect from their government. Although the best corporations serve society as well as shareholders, profits are the principal goal of business. The government’s job is to protect the health and welfare of the people. Regulations are a critical tool.
President Trump is trying to release corporations from any social responsibility. He is using the powers of his office to punish companies and other organizations that adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, or environmental, social, and governance goals. He has ordered the attorney general to investigate states with climate policies.
Because governments in the U.S. and worldwide are doing too little about climate change, people are turning to the courts again. As of last fall, 122 of the world’s largest oil companies faced 86 active lawsuits attempting to hold them accountable for damages resulting from climate-altering pollution. Fifty-eight percent of the cases are in U.S. courts. They’ve had mixed results so far.
However, the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, ruled on July 23 that nations are obligated under international law to take action against climate change, and countries can be held liable for failing to do so. Their obligations include “necessary regulatory and legislative measures” to prevent greenhouse gas pollution.
As consumers, Americans have some leverage over corporate behavior, but it is limited. So long as corporations try to profit from environmental degradation and human misery, we must insist that governments protect us. And any elected official who serves corporations at the expense of people should be shown the revolving door.
William S. Becker is a former U.S. Department of Energy central regional director and executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.
