CAC: Trump’s EPA to Ignore Costs of Deaths, Illness from Air Pollution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 12, 2026
CONTACT: Gabrielle Levy, Glevy@cacampaign.org, 562-673-6974
CAC: Trump’s EPA to Ignore Costs of Deaths, Illness from Air Pollution
Under Trump’s EPA, polluters matter. People don’t.
WASHINGTON – Today, the New York Times reported that the Environmental Protection Agency would no longer account for the monetary cost of health harms, including lives lost, when setting rules for air pollution, abandoning four decades of precedent at the core of the EPA’s mission. Air pollution costs the U.S. economy upwards of $800 billion a year, with oil and gas pollution alone responsible for 91,000 premature deaths per year. Margie Alt, Director of the Climate Action Campaign (CAC), released the following statement in response:
“The Trump administration has taken a new and devastating step to replace its mission with the Polluters First Agenda. Under this new directive, the EPA will sweep the very real costs to Americans’ health and lives under the rug in their eagerness to roll out the red carpet for polluters. To Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin, polluters and their profits matter, people – their health and their lives – do not.
"Air pollution, from coal plants and oil refineries and other toxic sources, is a threat to millions of Americans every single day in the form of asthma attacks, heart disease, and lost loved ones. The costs of these health impacts to families is incalculable. The costs to the economy as a whole, in the hundreds of billions, are astronomical.
"Nowhere in the EPA’s mission is a mandate to protect corporate profits. Yet every day, we see how little Lee Zeldin and the Trump administration hew to the core of their work — protecting the environment and public health. It’s astonishing how little they care about actual people when there’s money to be made for polluters."
###
About the Climate Action Campaign
Climate Action Campaign (CAC) is a vibrant coalition driving ambitious, durable, equitable federal action to tackle the climate crisis. By cutting carbon pollution and accelerating the transition to clean energy, we will improve public health and create a more resilient economy and a more sustainable future for all.
