EPA celebrates 55th anniversary as Trump dismantles the agency
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: December 2, 2025
CONTACT: Luis Sanchez Armas, press.enaccion@climatepower.us
EPA celebrates 55th anniversary as Trump dismantles the agency
The Trump administration has reversed decades of environmental progress to protect polluters
WASHINGTON — Today marks 55 years since the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. This anniversary is marked by the Trump administration’s ongoing waves of staff reductions, program defunding, and rollbacks of cornerstone environmental and health protections, actions that disproportionately harm communities of color.
In commemoration of the anniversary, Climate Power En Acción Managing Director Elice Rojas-Cruz released the following statement:
“The EPA was created to protect Americans’ health and environment after people pushed for action to stop the rampant pollution poisoning our water, air and beloved communities. Although the agency has worked tirelessly throughout its history to fulfill this mission, the Trump administration has effectively hollowed it out.
“His unprecedented moves to slash staff, defund programs and dismantle core environmental and health safeguards mean that Americans everywhere are now less protected from dangerous pollution.
“This agency was created so people could live their lives without the dangers and risks that harmed and killed so many previous generations. Trump is now betraying the implicit promise of the EPA that each generation can count on a safer environment than the last, all to ensure polluters can make more profits. It’s a betrayal of the American public that we do not tolerate and one that must be reversed.”
Trump’s EPA’s key detrimental actions include:
- Seeking to end the endangerment finding. In July, the Trump administration announced plans to eliminate this critical tool used to regulate harmful climate pollution, which is a crucial component in the fight against climate change.
- The endangerment finding obligates the federal government to protect communities from harmful air pollution that drives climate change.
- It is the foundation for limits on climate-warming pollution that fuels extreme heat and dangerous storms, as well as illnesses such as asthma.
- Rolling back 31 environmental and health protections. In March, the administration announced plans to dismantle dozens of safeguards. These protections were projected to deliver $275 billion in benefits and prevent 30,000 deaths annually.
- Withdrawing a proposed rule to limit PFAS discharges. The Trump administration pulled back a rule that would have restricted industrial dumping of toxic forever chemicals into waterways.
Slashing EPA staffing levels. Trump has reduced EPA staff by roughly 17 percent through firings and resignations.