Amid Catastrophic Wildfires, Trump Bulldozed Georgia’s Clean Air and Water Protections

Atlanta, GA – As wildfires scorch thousands of acres across Georgia, force families to evacuate, and fill the air with toxic smoke, the Trump administration has spent the past year rolling back protections and canceling crucial funding for communities across Georgia. These actions threaten Georgians’ access to clean air and water and make communities across the state less resilient to the impacts of wildfires. 

“Wildfires in south Georgia have destroyed dozens of homes and forced hundreds to evacuate, leaving unhealthy air quality from Brunswick to Atlanta,” said Mark McLaurin, Georgia State Director at Climate Power. “And after over a year of Trump’s cuts, Georgia is worse off: we are losing the critical protections that would have made our air and water safer and made our communities more resilient in the face of disasters like this. Georgia Republican lawmakers like Mike Collins and Buddy Carter are supporting an agenda that is making us less safe and less prepared for extreme weather.”

Here are just a few of the many ways in which Trump is making Georgia families less safe:

• Trump’s plan to restructure the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) will close regional offices in the South, where wildfire risk is growing. This move will leave high-risk states like Georgia to face intensifying wildfire threats with fewer federal resources.
  
• Trump’s DOGE cuts have already weakened our capacity to prevent and respond to wildfires, as the USFS lost 16 percent of its workforce in 2025 compared to an average 12 percent reduction across other federal agencies.
  
• Trump’s EPA repealed the Endangerment Finding, which obligated the federal government to protect Americans from climate pollution, and other environmental protections despite evidence that fossil fuel emissions are making wildfires more destructive.

Read more: Climate Power’s New Energy Crisis Snapshot highlights how the Trump administration is making life increasingly unaffordable for Georgians while gutting clean energy production.

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