<span class="field field–name-title field–type-string field–label-hidden">Environmental Advocates Rally Against Trump’s Plans to Undermine EPA’s Ability to Fight Climate Change</span>
<span class="field field–name-uid field–type-entity-reference field–label-hidden"><span>Eunice Alpasan</span></span>
<span class="field field–name-created field–type-created field–label-hidden"><time datetime="2025-07-28T18:04:00-05:00" title="Monday, July 28, 2025 – 18:04" class="datetime">Mon, 07/28/2025 – 18:04</time>
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<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field–name-body field–type-text-with-summary field–label-hidden field__item"><p>Environmental advocates, elected leaders and workers at the Environmental Protection Agency gathered at Federal Plaza downtown Monday to push back against President Donald Trump’s reported efforts to repeal a key federal determination that allows the EPA to help combat climate change.</p>
<p>Environmental Law & Policy Center senior policy advocate Susan Mudd said Trump’s <a href="https://ift.tt/4LcRlFi" target="_blank">reported plans</a> to rescind the “endangerment finding” means the EPA would be abandoning its job to protect Americans and the environment.</p>
<p>“It’s time to ramp up efforts to reduce the air pollution stemming from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants and vehicle tailpipes that are leading to all this damage — not time to put heads in the sand, tie EPA’s hands behind its back and exacerbate the problems,” Mudd said.</p>
<p>The federal government’s “<a href="https://ift.tt/FTyREad" target="_blank">endangerment finding</a>,” in place under the Clean Air Act since 2009, allows the EPA to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, factories and other sources due to their negative impact on public health. The Trump administration is expected to announce plans to rescind the finding within days, according to reports.</p>
<p>“The Trump Administration will not sacrifice national prosperity, energy security, and the freedom of our people for an agenda that throttles our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choice while benefiting adversaries overseas,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a March news release, when the administration <a href="https://ift.tt/te4T9jv" target="_blank">first announced</a> it would formally reconsider the determination.</p>
<p>Loreen Targos, executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 union, said the “endangerment finding” has allowed the EPA to regulate man-made contributors of climate change, including carbon dioxide and methane emissions.</p>
<p>“The rate of climate change is accelerating beyond what scientists have said is safe for the species alive on this earth, including humanity,” Targos said. “I see the rate of extreme storms that are supposed to be 1,000-year floods happening every year, the intensity of hurricanes and how they’ve changed in these ways that even our strongest predictions didn’t predict.”</p>
<p>Targos, a physical scientist who has worked at the EPA for 10 years, said she has seen “terror and trauma” put on EPA employees in the past several months under the current administration.</p>
<p><img class="image-full non-gallery-image" src="/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/article/image-non-gallery/EPA_AFGE704_Nicole_Cantello_072825_Credit_EuniceAlpasan.jpg?itok=AEdIcMt0" data-entity-uuid="insert-full-b3133bfd-77a7-4d48-8929-34a4e705640f" data-entity-type="file" alt="American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 President Nicole Cantello, whose union represents about 1,000 EPA employees in the Midwest, speaks at Federal Plaza on July 28, 2025, in light of the Trump administration’s reported plans to rescind the EPA’s “endangerment finding,” which allows the agency to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)" width="1824" height="1026" title="American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 President Nicole Cantello, whose union represents about 1,000 EPA employees in the Midwest, speaks at Federal Plaza on July 28, 2025, in light of the Trump administration’s reported plans to rescind the EPA’s “endangerment finding,” which allows the agency to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)">
</p><p>The local EPA office has lost more than 200 workers since Trump returned to office, according to Nicole Cantello, president of AFGE Local 704, which represents about 1,000 EPA employees in the Midwest. Even more might potentially leave the EPA under the latest round of a deferred resignation program being offered to workers, Cantello said.</p>
<p>In February, Chicago-area EPA workers <a href="https://ift.tt/7FbJX1V" target="_blank">rallied</a> against the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers, as part of its initial efforts to cut government spending and reduce the size of the federal workforce.</p>
<p>The loss of workers at the agency limits environmental protection in the region, according to Cantello.</p>
<p>“A lot of things are falling through the cracks,” Cantello said. “For instance, air enforcement or water enforcement, where you try to stop people from polluting — so many of those inspectors have left, and also the lawyers that prosecute those cases.”</p>
<p>Earlier this month, about 140 EPA workers across the country, including some in Chicago, were placed on administrative leave after signing a letter criticizing how, in their view, the Trump administration has undermined the agency’s mission.</p>
<p>U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-Illinois) noted formerly serving with Zeldin in Congress back when Zeldin served as a representative for New York. Foster and fellow U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Illinois) made remarks during Monday’s news conference at Federal Plaza, warning of the dangers of rescinding the “endangerment finding” on the health of people in the U.S. and the broader world.</p>
<p>“This is not a small deal because this has been the basis of a tremendous amount of greenhouse gas mitigation that we have accomplished in the last 15 years since that finding was in place,” Foster said. “The danger of it being reversed is something that will cause the rest of the world, once again, to shake their heads in dismay at what’s become of this country.”</p>
<p>Environmental Health Programs Director for the Chicago-based Respiratory Health Association Brian Urbaszewski said a repeal of the EPA’s “endangerment finding” could lead to more power plants that run on coal, along with more diesel and gasoline engines in cars, undermining health, in addition to undermining the economic benefits and technological advancements of solar and wind energy.</p>
<p>“It’s ridiculous to see that the federal government is trying to essentially take us back a century to where we’re going to be pushing more fossil fuels, which we know are deadly,” Urbaszewski said. “Hopefully, the science will win out in the end.”</p>
<p><em>Contact Eunice Alpasan: </em><a href="mailto:ealpasan@wttw.com"><em>ealpasan@wttw.com</em></a></p>
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