Trump is Giving Corporate Polluters Another Blank Check to Pollute While New Jerseyans Pay the Price With Their Health
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New Jersey– After taking the most pro-pollution action in modern history when he repealed the endangerment finding, Trump is reportedly going even further today by allowing coal and gas plants to pump unlimited carbon pollution into our air.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 New Jerseyans 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 New Jerseyans sicker at the same time they have increased health care costs and paved the way for massive profits for their oil and gas donors.
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 burned to power data centers, the impacts of this rollback will hit hardest in states 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 New Jersey:
- Trump’s EPA repealed the endangerment finding, which obligated the federal government to protect communities from harmful air pollution that can cause life-threatening illnesses,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.
- As of 2025, 46 public water systems in New Jersey had PFAS levels over the EPA limit, and nine had PFAS levels “well over the limit.” Livingston Township had the highest PFAS levels at 9.2 times the limit.
- Trump’s EPA weakened the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that were expected to reduce toxic metal pollutionby 67% and generate $430 million in health and climate benefits. Emissions from coal-fired power plants caused18,000 excess deaths in New Jersey from 1999 to 2020.
- 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.
- As of November 2025, New Jersey had three power plant sites that previously stored toxic coal ash across six ponds. Coal ash contaminated groundwater at at least two of the sites.
- In 2023, 67 facilities in New Jersey reported more than 25,000 metric tons of harmful air pollution. New Jersey’s largest emitter that year was the Linden Cogeneration Facility in Linden, which reported over 2.8 million metric tons of climate pollution.
- 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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