“E.P.A. Targets Dozens of Environmental Rules as It Reframes Its Purpose” Article Reflection No. 130 (3/15/2025)

Article:  “E.P.A. Targets Dozens of Environmental Rules as It Reframes Its Purpose"

Reflection: 

In The New York Times article “E.P.A. Targets Dozens of Environmental Rules as It Reframes Its Purpose,” journalists Hiroko Tabuchi and Lisa Friedman discuss the changes to the United States E.P.A. proposed under administrator Lee Zeldin. These proposed changes include the deregulation of carbon emissions, mercury neurotoxin restrictions, and caps on smokestack soot. The article notes that through this deregulation, the E.P.A. now aims to prioritize energy in ways that they hope will benefit the economy rather than the environment. An additional attempt to change the course of the agency’s actions concerns a 2009 opinion that granted the E.P.A. the power to control emissions from greenhouse gases. The arguments needed to justify these proposals and back their implementation is weak as there is so much concrete evidence against it, according to the article. 

I’m honestly so relieved and grateful for the years of evidence because through that information, it’ll be much more difficult to actually carry out these changes, as the article states. But it still worries me that there are attempts to change an entire federal agency’s course of action. That’s so scary. But in this case at least history is defending the present—which is an idea that is interesting to me because you would think the present is a way to make amends for past history but if you think about it the other way around it kind of makes sense too. Kind of.