Simply put, our climate is under attack – and our future is at stake. Since January 20, President Trump has done all he can to sell our country for parts to the fossil fuel industry, dismantle institutions that have historically protected the environment, and roll back any progress we made to build out a clean energy future.
Since it was established in 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been the bedrock institution to ensure the health and safety of air, water, land, and communities. Now it’s under full frontal attack, being disassembled in real time.
Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration fired over 400 EPA employees, rescinded billions in funding for clean energy projects, and cancelled environmental justice initiatives.
In just the past few DAYS, further moves have happened, designed to dismantle the agency’s mandate and ability to confront the climate crisis:
- The head of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) was put on administrative leave. The GGRF, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, is a green bank program intended to spur public and private investments in clean energy and climate solutions, (especially in underserved communities).
- The EPA froze the bank accounts of GGRF recipients, so they could no longer access their federal funds. While this will surely be challenged in court, everything is on pause for now.
- Lastly, Zeldin took an even more sweeping move behind closed doors – briefing President Trump that the EPA will no longer adhere to the scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health – and therefore can be regulated by the EPA as pollutants (known as the “endangerment finding”). This will make it easier to undo any previous greenhouse gas standards (especially carbon and methane), and allow the agency not to replace them.
When the President signed the Executive Order to declare an “Energy Emergency,” we knew it would change the trajectory of efforts to build out clean energy solutions. We didn’t anticipate how quickly he would unleash the fossil fuel industry to ravage our public lands, increase prices for consumers, and ratchet up already outrageous profits. All while increasing emissions that are heating our planet and accelerating the climate crisis.
Please send a message to Congress today, and take action with us in the weeks to come.
Jewish tradition teaches us that to save a single life is to save the entire world (Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a). Every day, the EPA works to save lives and put us on a path toward a just and livable world.
Dahlia Rockowitz
Dahlia Rockowitz, Dayenu's Director of Campaigns & Partnership, believes in the power of everyday people to demand and win inclusive, equitable, and ambitious climate solutions. She previously worked in both the climate and Jewish social justice movements, planning activist trainings for thousands of committed volunteers around the world at The Climate Reality Project and advocating to the US government in support of human rights and climate justice worldwide at American Jewish World Service. Dahlia studied environmental justice and policy at the University of Michigan.