Project 2025 Would Put Millions At Risk from Asthma, Cancer, Lung Disease and Heart Disease
New Report: EPA Air Pollution Standards Under Biden-Harris Will Prevent 100 Million Asthma Attacks and Save Over 200,000 Lives
Please share the findings from this new Environmental Protection Network report [link to image file here. Link to report here]
In 2021, EPA had to recover from the enormous hole that Donald Trump had dug as president when he put polluter lobbyists in charge of the agency.
As someone who once worked at EPA, I have closely tracked the agency’s progress under Biden and Harris as they refocused the agency on its mission of protecting public health and the environment. In May, I co-authored an essay on EPA’s successes, but we didn’t have a quantified view of the health benefits EPA staff have locked in under Administrator Michael Regan.
Until now.
Environmental Protection Network (which I support as an advisor), is an uplifting non-profit that is powered by 650 volunteers who once worked at EPA. Many are now retired but still offer their time pro bono to help communities and support EPA’s mission of protecting public health and the environment.
This spring, Environmental Protection Network set out to evaluate how good a job EPA did in resetting after Trump and getting back on its mission of protecting public health and the environment. We carefully examined 16 major air pollution rules that EPA has updated under the Biden-Harris administration, including standards that reduce pollution from smokestacks, tailpipes, and oil and gas operations. We used EPA's own data from their extensive studies of the impacts of those rules, which are based on the latest science and economics.
What we found is jaw-dropping in terms of the scope of the impacts. EPA’s accomplishments over the past four years have been nothing short of life-saving.
Extra Seats at the Dinner Table
Our analysis, Breathing Easy: An Assessment of Public Health Benefits from EPA Air Pollution Standards (2021–2024), shows that air pollution standards finalized under Biden and Harris will save over 200,000 lives and prevent more than 100 million asthma attacks by 2050. These protections are especially critical for children and the elderly, and for families in low-income communities and communities of color, who are often most affected by poor air quality.
Thanks to EPA’s recent work, people who suffer from asthma will suffer 100 million fewer asthma attacks that leave them struggling for breath.
Nearly a quarter of a million people will be able to sit at the dinner table with their families, living longer and healthier lives.
It’s hard to envision 200,000 people. It’s equivalent to a convey of buses stretching along the highway from Philadelphia to New York City. Think of the families waiting for those people to disembark: daughters, sons, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
For additional perspective on the stories of people affected by EPA’s rules and Project 2025, I recommend this report from Center for American Progress.
The Hidden Costs of Pollution
Breathing Easy concludes that EPA’s air pollution standards issued under Biden and Harris will deliver $250 billion in net benefits annually, with the climate and health benefits outweighing compliance costs by a ratio of six-to-one. Those savings come from avoided health care bills and reduced damages from climate change. They show up whenever someone is able to attend school or work without being debilitated from pollution-induced illnesses.
EPA opponents like to talk about how much regulations cost. The truth is that the costs of pollution are far greater than the cost of clean air and clean water.
The report notes that its conclusions significantly understate the benefits of EPA’s work over the past three years. In order to keep the project manageable, the analysis includes air pollution regulations only and does not account for the additional public health gains from EPA’s water, chemical, and toxic waste initiatives during the same period. In addition, there are many benefits from air pollution rules that EPA does not monetize, including the health benefits of slashing emissions of cancer-causing toxins such as benzene, formaldehyde, and arsenic.
Further, the report only scratches the surface on Project 2025’s negative impact on the economy. Energy Innovation has a report here that tracks how a continuation of the Biden-Harris actions on climate change, including EPA climate pollution rules plus the clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, will lead to enormous job gains. These job gains would be reversed by the radical Project 2025 plan discussed in the following section. Here’s a graphic from Energy Innovation:
EPA Is Under Attack
EPA is under attack, which means that the health protections that EPA delivers to families and communities throughout the country are under attack.
As Environmental Protection Network prepared this report, the Heritage Foundation released Project 2025, which includes a radical EPA roadmap that will dismantle EPA’s ability to protect people’s health and the environment. Project 2025 includes an EPA chapter written by six former senior EPA political appointees who were placed in their roles by Donald Trump. Among other reckless plans to gut the agency, Project 2025 would eliminate EPA’s offices of enforcement and environmental justice and subject science to a censorship screen of political operatives.
These authors are hoping to get their hands on the agency once more. I wrote previously about the lead author of the Protect 2025 chapter attacking EPA and Environmental Protection Network and demanding a list of names. Since then, media have reported that the lead author has been subpoenaed in a federal probe and has written a forthcoming book titled “Y’all Fired.”
By putting polluters in control of our air and water instead of EPA scientists, Project 2025 would put millions of Americans needlessly at risk of asthma attacks, cancer, lung disease, and heart disease.
That’s bad news for anyone who breathes.
Click here for more information on the report and to access the full findings.