April 8, 2025
OEC Law Center Analysis: The U.S. EPA’s Rollbacks of Regulations Essential to Our Environment
Summary:
- The Action: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced 31 regulatory rollbacks on the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), marking a significant shift in federal environmental policy. The Trump Administration also recently announced plans to eliminate 65% of EPA’s staffing.
- The Impact for Ohio:
- Harm Air Quality: The U.S. EPA’s proposed changes will increase air pollution from coal plants and vehicle emissions.
- Harm Water Quality: They may also increase groundwater contamination.
- Harm Public Health: Water and air pollution are dangerous, especially to children and pregnant people. It can cause increases in diseases like bronchitis and asthma.
- Harm Environmental Justice: low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, especially those located near industrial facilities, power plants, and major highways, will be most impacted by these regulation changes.
- What you can do: Learn about Civic Engagement through our series and sign up to receive emails about Action Alerts, which allow you to submit comments and support advocacy work on behalf of Ohio.
OEC Law Center Analysis: The U.S. EPA’s Rollbacks of Regulations Essential to Our Environment
On March 12, 2025, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced 31 regulatory rollbacks, marking a significant shift in federal environmental policy. The Trump Administration also recently announced plans to eliminate 65% of EPA’s staffing. The Administration is damaging environmental protection. However, just how far it will get in its attempt to dismantle our nation’s environmental protections is an open question.
Fortunately, neither the president nor the new EPA head can simply wish away long-standing regulations with mere press statements. At least when it comes to most regulations, the Administration’s agenda must contend with federal administrative law, the judicial system, and legal actions brought by public interest environmental organizations.
If you’re seeking to understand the legal landscape surrounding the U.S. EPA’s attempts to eliminate key environmental protections, you’ve come to the right place. After a brief primer on federal administrative law and its importance in this threatening context, we’ll explore a few of the worst threats hidden within EPA Administrator Zeldin’s 31 rollbacks.
But most importantly, we want to leave you with hope—and the OEC Law Center’s thoughts on how to resist the Trump Administration’s elimination of our environmental protections.
A Hopeful Note on Federal Administrative Law
Given the often cynical and ever-coarsening nature of national politics, you might be surprised to learn that at least one federal government sector, the administrative state, is governed by long standing legal standards of transparency, inclusion, and rationality. In particular, the federal Administrative Procedure Act (APA) of 1946 governs most federal agency rulemaking activities, including regulatory rollbacks and rescissions.
The APA requires rational and evidence-based agency rulemaking decisions. The statute provides for judicial scrutiny of agency action, requiring reviewing courts to set aside agency actions if they are arbitrary or capricious. To withstand judicial scrutiny under the APA, agencies must support their actions with clear explanations based on a factual record.
The APA mandates public involvement in the rulemaking process through public notice-and-comment. Subject to limited exceptions, such as good faith emergencies, federal agencies must publish proposed rules and rule rollbacks in the Federal Register and give the public an opportunity to comment. The law also requires agencies to consider the public’s comments and to respond to significant issues raised by the public.
Air Quality, Water Quality, and Public Health at Risk
The OEC team is concerned about all of the rollbacks, but we’re particularly concerned about a few of the specific impacts here in Ohio. As a state with a history of industrial activity and coal-fired power plants, Ohio faces heightened risks from the EPA’s decision to reconsider several key air pollution regulations.
Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS)
The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) were designed to limit emissions of mercury, arsenic, and other hazardous pollutants from coal-fired power plants. Relaxing these standards would lead to increased mercury pollution in Ohio’s air and water, posing severe neurological risks to children and pregnant people. A policy introduced under the Biden administration sought to cut mercury emissions from coal plants by 70% due to its harmful effects on child development.
Vehicle Emissions Standards
The proposed weakening of vehicle emission standards threatens to exacerbate air quality issues in urban areas like Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Smog and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) have long been concerns for Ohioans, contributing to respiratory illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis. If the U.S. EPA loosens vehicle emissions standards, the state may see an increase in air pollution-related illnesses, disproportionately affecting low-income communities that already bear the brunt of environmental hazards.
Coal Ash Regulations
Power plant coal ash is a highly toxic waste stream, and Ohio is one of the top coal ash-generating states. There are at least 67 coal ash dump sites in Ohio. A 2022 Earthjustice investigative report reveals that more than 90% of coal plants across the country contaminate groundwater with toxic substances. The Administration announced that it may extend ash disposal compliance deadlines far into the future.
Climate Change Setbacks
One of the Trump Administration’s most ambitious would-be rollbacks is its announced formal reconsideration of U.S. EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, which determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.
To succeed, the Trump EPA would have to convince the courts that it was justified in abruptly shifting away from the agency’s longstanding position on GHGs, a position with mountains of scientific evidence supporting it. At least one conservative legal scholar has described the Trump EPA effort here as a “fool’s errand.”
Environmental Justice Implications
The termination of environmental justice programs is one of the most troubling aspects of the Trump/Zeldin anti-environment agenda. Environmental justice initiatives have critically addressed the disproportionate impact of pollution on marginalized communities. In Ohio, many low-income neighborhoods and communities of color are located near industrial facilities, power plants, and major highways, making them more vulnerable to pollution-related health issues.
Eliminating these programs would remove crucial resources for monitoring air and water quality in at-risk communities, leaving them with fewer tools to fight environmental hazards.
The Path Forward: Advocacy Together
America is still a nation of laws. Our federal administrative agencies are, at least in part, still held to standards of truth, transparency, inclusion, and rationality. The Administration’s approach can therefore only go so fast and so far.
We, along with our friends, neighbors, and family, can participate in public comment periods, engage with policymakers, and support litigation efforts to challenge harmful EPA rollback attempts. In most cases, federal law requires that rule rollbacks go through public notice and comment. And agencies cannot simply sweep the public’s input under the rug. Courts have long required agencies to demonstrate that they considered the public’s comments.
The Trump Administration’s most recent EPA rollbacks represent a serious threat to public health and the public interest, with Ohio poised to experience some of the most severe consequences. The potential rise in air and water pollution, coupled with the dismantling of climate protections and environmental justice programs, puts public health, the natural world, and economic sustainability at risk.
The public has a vitally important role to play. We owe it to present and future generations to advocate for the environment, injecting facts and our voices into agency comment processes. Where strategic, we must fight in court for our communities. This is work the OEC Law Center engages in every day. We look forward to working with you to meet the challenges ahead.
