California Gov. Gavin Newsom is trashing Donald Trump and his supporters for his administration’s plans to reportedly prioritize businesses over human health in a huge reversal on air pollution regulations.
The Environmental Protection Agency under Trump reportedly plans to stop counting the public health benefits of clean air when weighing environmental regulations, focusing instead on the costs to industry. For decades, the EPA has factored in the impacts of fine particulate matter and ozone on human health, using estimated savings from averted medical bills to justify adopting environmentally friendly measures.
Now that approach is going up in smoke, according to documents seen by The New York Times, potentially making things cheaper for big business while opening the door to increased air contamination.
Newsom pounced on his political rivals for the move, taking aim at not only the president but also his MAGA supporters.
Along with the Times article revealing the EPA reversal, the governor’s press office posted an AI-generated image of a man wearing a Make America Great Again hat and a star-spangled banner T-shirt, clutching his throat as a cloud of noxious fumes envelopes him.
“I voted for this,” a cartoon bubble quotes the man as saying.
Trump campaigned on a pro-fossil fuel platform and has a long track record of criticizing green energy, having declared war on “windmills” since taking office last January.
The reported new plan from the EPA, led by Trump appointee Lee Zeldin, is just the latest in the president’s reversal of green policy and is described by the Times as a “seismic shift” in the agency’s mission to protect both human life and the environment.
The costs to businesses of complying with regulations will be counted when weighing regulations, but the estimated savings from the health benefits of cleaner air will not.
The fine particulate matter at the center of these regulations can burrow deep into the lungs, potentially wreaking the same havoc on the body as smoking. Ozone, which the regulations have also long sought to protect against, can cause respiratory conditions like asthma.
Zeldin slammed The Times’ reporting on X, writing, “Cute BS headline. Entirely untrue, but the NY Times won’t ever let the truth get in the way of their desire to dumb down their readers. The Times posted this ENTIRELY AWARE that EPA will continue considering lives saved when setting pollution limits.”
