Trump is Giving Corporate Polluters Another Blank Check to Pollute While Arizonans Pay the Price With Their Health

PHOENIX, AZ – After taking the most pro-pollution action in modern history when he repealed the endangerment finding, Trump is reportedly going even further by allowing coal and gas plants to pump unlimited carbon pollution into our air. With this rollback, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is handing a favor to corporate polluters while Arizonans pay the price with higher medical bills and more trips to the hospital. 

Trump’s actions to gut pollution protections — rubberstamped by Republicans in Congress — are making Arizonans sicker at the same time they have increased health care costs and paved the way for massive profits for their oil and gas donors. On top of that, his effort to prop up dirty, expensive coal power could actually raise energy costs at a time when Arizona families are already struggling to keep the lights on. 

Former Senior Advisor to the EPA Administrator Zealan Hoover issued the following statement: “By eliminating the power plant pollution standards, Trump is choosing to allow preventable asthma attacks, heart disease, and even deaths. With more coal and gas being burned to power data centers, the impacts of this rollback will hit particularly hard in states like Arizona where developers are racing to take advantage of this pro-polluter EPA. Instead of ‘Making America Healthy Again,’ Trump is telling the biggest fossil fuel companies that they can make Americans sicker just to add to their bottom lines.” 

Trump and Republicans in Congress have increased pollution and hurt public health across Arizona: 

• Trump’s EPA repealed the endangerment finding, which obligated the federal government to protect communities from harmful air pollution that can cause life-threatening illnesses, including asthma and lung cancer. 
• Trump’s EPA weakened limits on toxic “forever chemicals” (PFAS) pollution, allowing more dangerous pollutants into the air and water. PFAS have been linked to a range of health problems, including cancer. 
• The 2026 American Lung Association report gave five Arizona counties, Cochise, Gila, Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal, failing grades for ozone pollution, and two, Maricopa and Santa Cruz, received failing grades for particle pollution. 
• As of 2026, more than 1.1 million Arizonans were particularly vulnerable to air pollution due to age and at-risk health conditions. 
• Coal ash, which is stored in sites at risk of spilling into rivers and lakes, contains chemicals such as arsenic, selenium, lead, mercury, and boron that are known to cause cancer, neurological damage, and heart problems. 
• Arizona is home to three of the top 100 most polluting power plants nationwide, and a 2023 study found that coal-fired power plants caused 390 excess deaths in Arizona from 1999 to 2020. 
• Trump’s EPA reversed more than 40 years of precedent by no longer accounting for the value of health and lives saved when setting standards for toxic air pollution.

** Former Senior Advisor to the EPA Administrator Zealan Hoover is available for comment. Reach out to press@climatepower.us to schedule an interview **

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