Administrator Lee Zeldin said the Environmental Protection Agency will eliminate 31 protections against air and water pollution.
The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the elimination of more than two dozen air and water protections.
In a statement on social media, administrator Lee Zeldin said the EPA will reduce protections that regulate areas such as tailpipe pollution, waterway protection and power plant emissions.
“The EPA has launched 31 historic actions to promote a great American comeback on the day of the greatest deregulation in American history!” Zeldin wrote.
The move comes as President Donald Trump and his allies continue to push them to dismantle or fundamentally restructure federal agencies they see as obstacles to their agenda.
Among the regulations identified were standards for mercury and other air-based toxins released from coal-fired power plants.
He also said it would reform regulations surrounding coal ash. This is a dangerous by-product of the combustion process, which contains carcinogens and heavy metals that can contaminate the waterway.
The Climate Change Initiative was also on the cross announced Wednesday.
“We are driving daggers straight into the heart of climate religion, cutting the cost of living for American families, unleashing American energy, bringing car jobs back to the US and even more,” Zeldin said in a statement around the same time.
As part of his announcement, Zeldin expressed his support for rewriting the 2009 EPA discovery that declares pollutants that exacerbate climate change, such as greenhouse gases, are dangerous to public health and welfare.
Under his leadership, the EPA is also set to eliminate a series of offices set up to address disproportionate levels of pollution and reasonable health issues in low-income regions around the country.
“President Trump wants us to help bring about a golden age for all Americans, regardless of race, gender or background,” Zeldin said of the move.
Conservatives in the US have long been sought to cut environmental protection. In the course of that trend, Trump issued an executive order urging federal agencies to remove 10 regulations on all new regulations they impose.
He also shows a shift away from clean energy initiatives, often repeating the slogan “drill, babe, drill” on campaign trails. He argued that “clean coal” and unregulated oil and natural gas exploration could boost the US economy.
Within the federal government, Trump is pushing for a widespread layoff agenda in the name of reducing suspicious fraud and wasted spending.
For example, the EPA is planning to cut approximately 65% of its workforce.
Environmental protection groups responded with anger towards Wednesday’s push for deregulation, noting that many of the singled rules play a central role in tackling air and water pollution.
“President Trump and his allies don’t take into consideration the well-being of those living in America and are only concerned with protecting the interests of the polluters,” said Chitra Kumar, managing director of the Climate Energy Program for the advocacy organization, the Alliance of Scientists.
“This abominable movement has little support from the very institutions that rely on living, working, studying and playing near the polluting industry, leaving behind smog-forming traffic, polluted waterways and soil, and relying on enforcing protection laws.”