Elizabeth Lankenau, the city of Philadelphia's director of sustainability, says the city can't solve disparities in health conditions such as asthma without the EPA's help. (Sophia Schmidt/WHYY)
This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.
From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch.
Around two dozen people gathered at LOVE Park in Center City on Monday to protest the Trump administration’s reshaping of the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA announced in March plans to roll back dozens of air and water protections.
Most recently, the EPA announced a plan to repeal limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants and weaken caps on toxic pollutants from these facilities. Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania cheered the moves, saying they’ll help businesses and boost energy production in the state, at a time when electricity demand is growing.
But critics say these and other rollbacks promised by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin would prioritize polluters over people.
“Weakening the EPA will make Philadelphia’s air, water, and soil dirtier — and everyday Philadelphians will foot the bill,” said Elizabeth Lankenau, the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability’s director of sustainability.
The EPA rejects this. In response to Monday’s event, an agency spokesperson said the EPA will “continue to advance its core mission of protecting human health and the environment” — including “ensuring every American has access to clean air, land, and water.”
“This Administration knows that we can protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time,” the EPA spokesperson said in a written statement. “The previous administration’s attempts to shut down American energy and make our citizens more reliant on foreign fossil fuels resulted in worse environmental outcomes globally, billions in fresh funding to many of our nation’s adversaries at the expense to all Americans, and economic pain on those who can least afford it.”
This spring, Zeldin promised to reconsider, terminate or restructure dozens of rules, policies and programs in what he called the “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.”
But reversing regulations requires what is often a lengthy process. Formally proposed rollbacks, such as the two announced last week, must be put up for public comment before they are finalized.
Trump’s EPA wants to nix a 2009 determination by the agency that greenhouse gasses pose a danger to public health. The determination, known as the endangerment finding, is the “keystone” of several EPA air protections, said Alice Lu, policy coordinator for the nonprofit Clean Air Council.
“The loss of the endangerment finding could unravel decades of air regulations that have shielded Americans across the country from pollution,” Lu said.
The Trump administration has moved to cut staff from the EPA, particularly those working to address disproportionate impacts of pollution on poor communities and communities of color. This spring, several Philadelphia-area nonprofits working on similar goals found their EPA grants frozen or canceled.
On top of the actions taken by the executive branch, a bill passed by Republicans in the U.S. House last month would quickly phase out renewable energy tax credits, putting projects such as solar panels on Pennsylvania schools at risk. The bill, which still needs to pass the Senate, would also end an EPA program to reduce leaks of planet-warming methane from oil and gas operations.
“We are facing a future with an unstable climate and with no guarantee of clean air, clean water, or a healthy environment, if we don’t save the EPA,” Lu said.
State and local government agencies, such as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Air Management Services, can set and enforce some environmental standards. But advocates say federal enforcement is still necessary, in part because pollution crosses state boundaries.
State and local agencies also look to the EPA for guidance when crafting their own regulations, said state Sen. Nikil Saval (D-Philadelphia), after speaking at Monday’s event. The federal government has a larger budget and workforce than the state agency, he said.
“There’s no substitute for the experience of EPA administrators,” Saval said. “There’s no substitute for the enforcement mechanisms that they’ve set up over time and the inherited knowledge and accumulated experience of the agency.”
Lankenau, from the city’s Office of Sustainability, said the EPA goes beyond the city’s environmental enforcement actions by tracking emissions data, limiting the overflow of sewage into rivers, regulating pesticides and setting standards for common air pollutants.
She noted that children in Philadelphia suffer from asthma at rates above the national average, and the city’s Black and Hispanic children are hospitalized with asthma symptoms much more often than white children.
“These disparities require urgent action, but Philadelphia cannot address them alone,” she said.
Get daily updates from WHYY News!
Sign up