Earth Day Reckoning: More Pollution, Fewer Protections

The fires were still burning when Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time.

In January 2025, the Los Angeles wildfires destroyed more than 16,000 structures and forced 180,000 people from their homes. The official death toll was 30. By August, once researchers accounted for smoke-related deaths, it rose to 440. That gap matters, because closing it is exactly the kind of work the federal government does: track, measure, prevent, and respond to environmental harm before it becomes irreversible or deadly. 

Environmental protection is only as strong as the laws and people defending it.

I spent 30 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), most recently as Senior Advisor for Climate Adaptation and Resilience, turning national climate goals into action for communities. Our work built resilience and reduced risk in more than 2,000 communities and 375 Tribal Nations. I know what environmental programs mean for the people of America, because I saw it in action.  

You can write the rules, but without inspectors going into facilities, testing the water, reviewing the permits, and taking companies to court when they cheat, the rules are just paper. And when the rules aren’t enforced, people are hurt through pollution, lost income, more intense storms, and less access to clean water and air. 

Since January 2025, eight federal agencies that focus on environmental protection have lost more than 36,000 positions: scientists, analysts, community advocates, law enforcers, and grant makers. EPA lost nearly one in four employees, returning to staffing levels not seen since the Nixon administration. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which runs the weather forecasting systems communities depend on for disaster warnings, lost one in five. EPA’s entire Office of Research and Development was dismantled. The Office of Environmental Justice was eliminated entirely. 

In 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice filed only 16 civil environmental lawsuits on EPA’s behalf, 76 percent fewer than in the first year of the prior administration. Some permits were fast-tracked without environmental review. Some organizations violated their permits. Some got away with it. 

And the legal foundation is being dismantled alongside the workforce. On February 12, 2026, EPA repealed its 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, the scientific and legal basis for federal greenhouse gas regulation under the Clean Air Act, without credible scientific due process. Vehicle emissions standards going back to 2009 were simultaneously wiped out. More than 30 additional regulations are targeted for rollback. Even while the pro-democracy fights back (Democracy Forward joined climate leaders across the nation to challenge the rescission of the Endangerment Finding), the same civil servants who built these protections are now being directed to dismantle them. As one EPA staff member put it: “We are trying to minimize the damage, but it is hard when we are being directed to do things the science says are wrong.” 

The consequences show up fast and keep building.

In July 2025, catastrophic flooding struck Kerr County, Texas, killing at least 130 people, one of the deadliest inland floods in recent U.S. history. The Trump-Vance administration was simultaneously cutting NOAA's forecasting capacity and had suspended the flood control programs that could have reduced the damage. In 2025, the U.S. experienced 23 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters causing $115 billion in damages. The administration responded by stopping tracking them altogether.  

More than $29 billion in already-awarded clean energy and environmental grants were canceled or frozen. The solar panels that were going to go on that school roof, the flood barriers that were going to protect that neighborhood, the air quality monitors that were going to tell parents whether it was safe for their kids to play outside. All of it was canceled. The people in those communities never got what was promised. They got more pollution, more risk, and less protection. 

Every disaster that comes next will arrive with fewer scientists to predict it, fewer inspectors to prevent it, fewer responders to address it, and fewer resources to help communities recover. 

What do we want our government to deliver? 

Everyone should have access to clean air, clean water, and usable lands, and to be protected from climate-driven disasters. That is what the laws promise, and it is what we are committed to rebuilding. 

As part of Democracy Forward’s Democracy Works 250 initiative, we will spend the next year documenting the consequences of these rollbacks and identifying what it will take to restore that capacity. If you want to be part of that work, reach out. 

Viccy Salazar is a Civil Service Defense and Innovation Fellow and former Senior Advisor, Climate Adaptation, Resilience, Equity, and National Program Implementation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.