While many people have been trying to regain their footing after the shutdown — and maybe enjoy a quiet stretch of the holiday season — the federal government is continuing to gut important environmental and public health protections.
Several major rollbacks have come almost back-to-back. None of them should be viewed in isolation. Together, they show a government being redirected to serve a narrow set of industries at the expense of the public.
And much of it is happening under the radar.
A Costly Fuel-Economy Rollback Helps Polluters
Earlier this month, the administration proposed slashing federal fuel-efficiency standards, dropping requirements to 34.5 miles per gallon by 2031. This tosses out rules that would have pushed automakers toward cleaner, more efficient vehicles.
The consequences are straightforward: More gasoline burned. More climate pollution. Higher costs for families.
And NRDC’s analysis shows those costs will reach into the billions over the next decade. Oil companies and automakers have been pushing for this rollback for years, and they’re getting exactly what they asked for. Just as Trump promised Big Oil executives at Mar a Lago last year they would if they donated and supported his campaign.
It is pay-to-play corruption at its worst.
EPA Moves to Scrap a Life-Saving Air Pollution Standard
Almost simultaneously, EPA began trying to undo a strengthened national standard for fine particulate matter — “soot” — that scientists widely agree would prevent thousands of premature deaths each year.
According to AP News, EPA lawyers are asking a federal court to vacate the rule entirely. This standard wasn’t abstract. It was designed to reduce pollution that triggers asthma attacks, worsens heart disease, and cuts short thousands of lives every year — especially in communities already overburdened by industrial operations or major highways.
Undoing it is reckless. And the people who will feel the consequences first are those with the least political power to stop it.
These Are Not Isolated Actions — They Reflect a Bigger Strategy
None of these moves should come as a surprise to anyone watching closely. They are part of a coordinated, government-wide effort to weaken environmental oversight and sideline scientific expertise.
Multiple agencies are racing to roll back protections across the board — clean air requirements, land conservation measures, wetlands protections, scientific integrity rules, and more. In many cases, policies that took years of research and public engagement to craft are being unwound in a matter of weeks.
A clear example came last month, when the administration expanded offshore oil and gas leasing in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. The New York Times notes that millions of acres of federal waters are now newly open to drilling, even as scientists warn that warming oceans and extreme storms are accelerating. This locks in decades of additional carbon pollution at the worst possible time.
This isn’t deregulation for the sake of efficiency. This is policymaking designed to serve a very specific set of interests and to allow for self-dealing and corruption within the government.
A Government Redirected Toward the Powerful Few
The throughline in all these actions is hard to miss; federal decision-making is being reshaped to benefit wealthy industries and political allies while the public is left to bear the costs.
We will soon see the fallout from these decisions:
- Dirtier air and more asthma attacks
- Higher fuel costs for drivers
- Rising greenhouse gas emissions
- More drilling and extraction on fragile lands and waters
- Communities stripped of long-standing protections
People will feel these changes long after the news cycle moves on.
The Corruption of the Civil Service is Making Things Worse
Inside government, federal workers describe programs being weakened or destroyed with little explanation, decisions being made without career staff at the table, and scientific findings being sidelined because they conflict with predetermined political outcomes.
This dismantling of environmental programs goes hand-in-hand with the administration’s efforts to wreck our non-partisan civil service and gain the power to hire and fire employees at will — based on their loyalty to the leader, not their competence or loyalty to the constitution.
This erosion of science and public accountability is happening fast, and it affects everything from pollution enforcement to climate research.
What Comes Next
Many people ask me how PEER is working to “meet the moment”- we are doing this by doing what we do best, monitoring changes inside federal agencies, supporting public servants trying to uphold environmental and public health protections, defending employees who have been illegally terminated, and using public opinion to effectuate change.
If you missed these latest environmental developments amid the shutdown or the holidays, that was the intent. But now is the time to pay attention. A government’s priorities become clear not by what it says but by what it protects. And right now, the public interest is losing ground.
Tim Whitehouse is the Executive Director at PEER.
