Environment

 The Guardian - A push by Donald Trump’s administration to repeal a barrage of clean air and water regulations may deal a severe blow to US public health, with a Guardian analysis finding that the targeted rules were set to save the lives of nearly 200,000 people in the years ahead. Last week, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provoked uproar by unveiling a list of 31 regulations it will scale back or eliminate, including rules limiting harmful air pollution from cars and power plants; restrictions on the emission of mercury, a neurotoxin; and clean water protections for rivers and streams.

Lee Zeldin, the EPA’s administrator, called the extraordinary series of rollbacks the “greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen” and declared it a “dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion”. One of the most consequential actions will see the EPA reconsider a landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gases harm human health, which has been used to underpin laws aimed at addressing the climate crisis.

But the rules targeted by Zeldin have immediate, measurable benefits to Americans’ health even without considering the longer-term impacts of the climate crisis. In total, the regulations on the hit list will prevent nearly 200,000 deaths over the next 25 years, by helping avoid an array of heart, respiratory and other health problems worsened by air and water pollution, according to assessments conducted by the EPA itself.