The Trump administration has dramatically reshaped the Environmental Protection Agency in its first year, pivoting the agency away from its traditional mission of environmental protection toward economic priorities and fossil fuel promotion, according to officials and environmental experts.

Under Administrator Lee Zeldin’s leadership, the EPA has launched initiatives to roll back numerous regulations on air and water pollution while championing what the administration calls “energy dominance” – a policy favoring expanded fossil fuel development. The agency has targeted dozens of environmental rules established during previous administrations, particularly those enacted under President Joe Biden.

“We should not be causing extreme economic pain for an individual or a family because of policies aimed at saving the planet,” Zeldin told reporters at EPA headquarters in early December, arguing that many federal climate goals are unrealistic and overly expensive.

The transformation marks a stark departure from the agency’s historical mission. Founded in 1970 under President Richard Nixon when industrial pollution had turned some American rivers into chemical dumping grounds and cities were choking on smog, the EPA was established to safeguard public health and the environment.

Historians and former EPA officials view the current shift with alarm. Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, said the current administration “constantly wants to pat the fossil fuel business on the back and turn back the clock to a pre-Richard Nixon era” when the agency didn’t exist.

Among Zeldin’s most consequential actions was proposing to overturn the landmark finding that climate change threatens human health – a scientific determination that serves as the legal foundation for climate regulations. He has pledged to roll back dozens of environmental rules in what he called “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.”

The agency has already announced plans to abandon stricter soot pollution standards, loosen rules for harmful refrigerants, limit wetlands protections, and weaken vehicle gas mileage requirements. Meanwhile, it would exempt numerous polluting industries from federal emissions reduction mandates.

Zeldin, who had a moderate environmental record as a New York congressman, has reoriented the agency around economic goals. He announced “five pillars” to guide EPA’s work, four of which focused on economic objectives including energy dominance and boosting the auto industry.

Scientists and public health experts warn this policy shift carries significant risks. They caution that weakened regulations will lead to increased pollution, particularly mercury, lead, and tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs. They also note that higher greenhouse gas emissions will accelerate climate change, worsening the extreme weather events that are already becoming more frequent and destructive.

The EPA’s workforce has been reduced by approximately 20 percent, reaching staffing levels not seen since the mid-1980s. Justin Chen, president of the EPA’s largest union, called the staff cuts “devastating,” citing the dismantling of research and development offices at laboratories nationwide and the dismissal of employees who signed letters opposing EPA cuts.

Former EPA administrators from both parties have expressed concern. Christine Todd Whitman, who led the agency under Republican President George W. Bush, called watching Zeldin attack environmental protection laws “just depressing.”

“It’s tragic for our country. I worry about my grandchildren, of which I have seven. I worry about what their future is going to be if they don’t have clean air, if they don’t have clean water to drink,” Whitman said.

While many of Zeldin’s regulatory rollbacks are still working through the bureaucratic process required for implementation, the agency has already cut grants and reduced enforcement actions. Civil environmental enforcement actions have dropped to roughly one-fifth of what they were during the first eight months of the Biden administration, according to analysis by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project.

“You can effectively do a lot of deregulation if you just don’t do enforcement,” noted Leif Fredrickson, visiting assistant professor of history at the University of Montana.

EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch defended the agency’s approach, saying enforcement shouldn’t be measured solely by legal filings. The EPA is “focused on efficiently resolving violations and achieving compliance as quickly as possible” without making demands beyond what the law requires, she said.

Climate change programs and environmental justice initiatives have been particularly hard hit. Zeldin canceled billions in grants for projects that fell under what the administration called the “diversity, equity and inclusion” umbrella. He also eliminated a $20 billion “green bank” established under Biden’s climate law to fund clean energy projects, arguing it lacked proper oversight – claims a federal judge rejected.

Critics say these policy changes have upended years of environmental progress that could be difficult or impossible to restore in the future. Pat Parenteau, an environmental law expert and former director of the Environmental Law School at Vermont Law & Graduate School, expressed deep pessimism about addressing what he called “the two most awful crises in the 21st century” – biodiversity loss and climate disruption.

“I don’t see any hope for either one,” he said. “I really don’t. And I’ll be long gone, but I think the world is in just for absolute catastrophe.”