The EPA was created with a clear mission: to protect human health and the environment. Yet today, amid sweeping regulatory rollbacks and the suppression of environmental data, that mission is being undermined. In fact, although it feels surreal to acknowledge, today, we face the possibility that politicians may bring about the end of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as we know it.
In the spirit of truth — and in recognition of what Americans stand to lose — it is worth remembering why the EPA was founded, the crises that made it necessary, and why it has endured for more than half a century under presidents of both parties.
The Dawn of American Environmentalism
Concerns about pollution and environmental degradation existed long before the 1960s, but the modern environmental movement was catalyzed by Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring. Carson alerted Americans to the dangers of pesticides like DDT and helped shift public understanding: protecting nature was no longer a fringe idea but a mainstream public health imperative.
Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson incorporated environmental concerns into speeches and legislation, but widespread public alarm grew as highly visible ecological disasters unfolded. A 1969 blowout on an offshore oil rig near Santa Barbara coated beaches and wildlife in crude oil. That same year, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio, thick with oil and industrial waste, caught fire, becoming a national symbol of corporate pollution run amok.
Through the late 1960s and early 1970s, Americans expressed deepening concern about smog, litter, toxic dumps, and contaminated drinking water. In response, President Richard Nixon delivered a 37-point environmental message to Congress in 1970. He requested billions in funding for wastewater treatment, called for legislation to end pollution in the Great Lakes, recommended national air quality standards, and sought research to reduce vehicle emissions.
To coordinate environmental policy across the federal government, Nixon formed an advisory council whose recommendations ultimately led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. On July 9, 1970, Nixon announced his intention to establish the EPA. Less than five months later, on December 2, the agency officially opened its doors.
The 1970s: A Foundation of Landmark Protections
The EPA moved quickly, helping to enact some of the most consequential public health laws in U.S. history. Among them:
- Clean Air Act (1970 expansion): Directed the EPA to identify harmful air pollutants and set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and lead. These standards dramatically reduced toxic emissions.
- Clean Water Act (1972): Established the basic structure for regulating pollutants in U.S. waters and funded significant investments in sewage treatment infrastructure.
- Safe Drinking Water Act (1974): Allowed the EPA to set enforceable drinking water standards.
- Toxic Substances Control Act (1976): Gave the EPA authority to require testing and impose restrictions on industrial chemicals.
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976): Regulated hazardous waste from “cradle to grave.”
These laws were not partisan flashpoints at the time. They passed with overwhelming bipartisan support because all Americans had seen the cost of inaction.
Building a Modern Environmental Safety Net
Through the late 1970s and 1980s, the EPA continued to expand its role in cleaning up legacy pollution and preventing new environmental harms.
- Superfund (CERCLA, 1980): Authorized the EPA to identify, assess, and clean up hazardous waste sites and hold polluters financially responsible.
- Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (1986): Required industries to report toxic chemical releases, giving communities access to information about local environmental risks.
In 1992, the EPA launched Energy Star, now one of the most recognizable energy-efficiency programs in the world. Over its lifetime, Energy Star has saved American consumers and businesses trillions of kilowatt-hours of electricity and billions of dollars in energy costs.
By the 2000s and 2010s, the EPA’s authority extended to regulating greenhouse gas emissions, clean-car standards, and power plant pollution. Each of these rules was grounded in extensive regulatory impact analyses — detailed assessments of costs, health benefits, and avoided deaths.
Examples:
- Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS): The EPA’s 2024 risk and technology review found that MATS prevents thousands of premature deaths annually and protects children from neurotoxic mercury exposure.
- Clean Car and Clean Truck Standards: EPA analyses consistently show billions of dollars in avoided health costs and reduced premature mortality from reductions in particulate matter and ozone.
The EPA’s record is clear: strong scientific standards save lives.
Now, in 2025, Politicians are Moving the EPA Backwards
That history makes the events of 2025 all the more alarming. Instead of building on decades of bipartisan progress, political appointees currently leading the EPA are rolling back its own core mission. A sampling of this year’s actions includes:
March 10: Cancellation of more than 400 environmental grants.
March 12: Termination of the Environmental Justice and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.
June 11: Proposal to repeal power plant pollution standards.
July 18: Reduction in Force in the Office of Research and Development — the scientists who are the backbone of the agency.
August 7: Termination of the Solar for All program.
September 12: Reconsideration of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.
These are only a fraction of the actions taken this year. Collectively, political appointees are dismantling basic protections — from clean cars and trucks to power plant standards — and weakening the agency’s scientific capacity to protect Americans from pollution.
Without these safeguards, we will see more asthma attacks, more hospitalizations, and more premature deaths. The health impacts of air pollution are not theoretical. They are quantifiable, documented, and avoidable through policy, just as they have been for decades.
Lest We Forget: Pollution Has a History
We do not have to guess what happens when industry is allowed to pollute without oversight. We have lived it.
The United States has come a long way since 1960. Our air is still not perfect, but it is dramatically cleaner than it once was. Just as we no longer expect our rivers to ignite or our tap water to corrode pipes with lead, we should not accept a return to past pollution levels.
Clean Air and Water Should Not Be Political
Clean air and water are not partisan luxuries. They are basic expectations of American life. For more than 50 years, administrations of both parties reinforced the EPA’s mission, understanding that environmental protection is too important to be a political ping-pong ball.
Science should not swing with election cycles. Public health should not hinge on deregulation. And our children should not bear the burden of weakened protections.
The EPA was created because Americans demanded a federal agency that would safeguard their right to breathe clean air, drink safe water, and live on uncontaminated land. We must remember the disasters that led to its founding and the progress that followed before we allow history to repeat itself.
If we ignore the lessons of the past, we risk reliving them.
