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

Raleigh, NC  – In the wake of the state of North Carolina’s settlement to clean up the damage of PFAS contamination by chemical companies, the Trump Administration continues to double down on policies that benefit corporate polluters.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 North Carolina families 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 North Carolinians 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 North Carolina 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 North Carolina 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 North Carolina: 

• Trump’s EPA repealed the endangerment finding, which obligated the federal government to protect communities from harmful air pollution that can cause life-threatening illnesses,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. 
• Trump’s EPA canceled a grant for North Carolina’s Department of Health & Human Services to implement a project to address private well contamination in Sampson County. 
• In February 2026, Trump’s EPA pushed back the deadlines until 2031 for utilities to safely dispose of coal ash, to report contamination from landfills, and install groundwater monitoring systems. In April, the EPA further weakened cleanup standards for groundwater contamination for older coal ash dumps.
• 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. 
• 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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