Three officials are running this rollback. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin repealed the legal basis for all federal climate regulation and cut the agency to its smallest workforce since Reagan. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reversed the Public Lands Rule and opened millions of acres to drilling. Energy Secretary Chris Wright invoked the Defense Production Act to spend $700 million propping up coal.
The rules being dismantled generate $254 billion in annual health and economic benefits compared to $39 billion in compliance costs for industry. This page covers seven fights, from climate regulation to wildlife corridors. Each section explains what happened, what the data shows, and what you can do.
The legal basis for all federal climate regulation has been repealed
In February 2026, the EPA repealed the 2009 endangerment finding, the determination that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. That finding was the legal foundation for every federal climate regulation: emissions standards for power plants, fuel economy rules for cars and trucks, methane limits for the oil and gas industry.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called it “the single largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.” He is probably right, but not in the way he meant.
Earthjustice and a broad coalition of health and environmental groups sued the EPA in the D.C. Circuit, arguing the repeal was illegal because the underlying science has only grown stronger since 2009. The case will likely reach the Supreme Court. In the meantime, there is no federal limit on carbon pollution from any source.
The United States formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement for the second time on January 20, 2025, hours after inauguration. In January 2026, Trump announced withdrawal from more than 60 international organizations and treaties, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which a Republican administration helped create 33 years ago. The U.S. has no binding domestic climate targets and no international climate commitments.
While dismantling climate regulation, the administration is also spending $700 million to prop up coal plants using the Defense Production Act. Coal provides 15% of U.S. electricity and costs more than gas or renewables. The money includes $185 million repurposed from bipartisan infrastructure law funds originally designated for carbon capture.
If Courts Restore the Endangerment Finding
The legal foundation for federal climate regulation is restored. EPA can reinstate emissions standards for power plants, fuel economy rules, and methane limits. The D.C. Circuit case brought by Earthjustice and health organizations argues the underlying science has only grown stronger since the original 2009 finding.
If the Repeal Stands
There is no federal limit on carbon pollution from any source. No emissions standards for power plants or vehicles. No methane rules for oil and gas. The U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and 60+ international treaties. State-level climate policies become the only check, and they cover only part of the country.
EPA gutted to Reagan-era staffing levels
The EPA lost more than 4,000 employees between January 2025 and March 2026, bringing its workforce down to roughly 12,849 people. That is the lowest level since the Reagan administration. The rate of loss was more than double the average across the entire federal workforce.
The people who left were not new hires. Staff who departed had a median length of service of 30.3 years, compared to 10.8 years for those who remain.
The cuts hit specific programs hard:
- Environmental justice: The EPA abolished 29 environmental justice positions at headquarters in August 2025 and terminated the entire environmental justice arm
- Research: The research office lost roughly 1,500 employees who had been in place under the Biden administration
- Enforcement: EPA enforcement actions fell to a record low in 2025, lower even than Trump’s first term
- Superfund: Staff reductions are threatening cleanup of contaminated sites in states like New Jersey, which leads the nation in Superfund sites
The proposed budget savings from these cuts: $300 million by 2026, roughly 3% of the agency’s 2024 budget. The cost in enforcement capacity and scientific expertise does not show up in a budget line.
70 million acres of wetlands at risk after Clean Water Act rollback
The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers proposed further narrowing the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act. The proposed rule would exclude groundwater from federal protection, stop automatically protecting interstate waters, and significantly limit which wetlands and streams qualify for any protection at all.
A geospatial analysis found that between 38 and 70 million acres of wetlands are at risk of pollution or destruction under scenarios modeled on the proposed changes.
The administration also moved to undercut state and tribal authority under the Clean Water Act. Under Section 401, states and tribes have long held the power to review and block federal permits for projects that would harm their waters. The new EPA guidance weakens that authority, making it harder for states to stop pipelines, mines, or industrial projects from polluting local waterways even when state law says they should.
These wetlands filter drinking water and absorb floodwaters. When they lose federal protection, they do not disappear. They get filled, drained, and paved. The water downstream gets dirtier. Tell Congress to stop the EPA from gutting clean water protections.
Who This Affects
A family, Southern New Jersey
They live a mile from a Superfund site that has been leaking industrial solvents into the groundwater since the 1980s. EPA staff managing the cleanup were part of the agency's 4,000-person reduction. The inspector general found the EPA has shed too many employees to manage its grant portfolio. Cleanup timelines that were already measured in decades are now indefinite. New Jersey has more Superfund sites than any state in the country. The families living near them drink bottled water, worry about property values, and wait for a federal agency that no longer has the staff to return their calls.
Based on documented cases and public data.
NOAA cut by 25%, weather forecasting compromised
The administration fired roughly 800 probationary staff at NOAA in early 2025. A federal court ordered them rehired. They were placed on administrative leave instead. Over 100 National Weather Service employees at field offices were also terminated.
The National Weather Service lost nearly 600 workers in the first months of 2025. Field offices began conducting fewer weather balloon launches, which provide data for forecasting tornadoes and hurricanes. NOAA also suspended the contract for automated translation of weather alerts into Spanish.
| What was cut | What it affects |
|---|---|
| ~600 NWS field staff | Daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings |
| Hurricane modeling scientists (Miami) | Accuracy of hurricane track and intensity forecasts |
| Weather balloon launches reduced | Upper-atmosphere data for tornado and severe weather prediction |
| Spanish-language alert translation | Emergency warnings for millions of Spanish-speaking residents |
| 10 NOAA research labs proposed for closure | Flash flood forecasting, climate modeling, fisheries science |
NOAA budget proposed cut by 25%+ from ~$6 billion. Hurricane season starts June 1.
NPR / Inside Climate News →The proposed 2026 budget would slash NOAA funding by more than 25% from its current level of roughly $6 billion. Hurricane season starts June 1. The people who forecast where storms will hit and when to evacuate are working with fewer colleagues and less data.
The National Science Foundation is also pulling 900 deep-sea instruments from the Atlantic and Pacific, dismantling the $368 million Ocean Observatories Initiative halfway through its 25-year design life. Congress rejected funding cuts to the program twice. NSF moved ahead with decommissioning anyway. One array tracked the Atlantic overturning circulation, the ocean conveyor belt that scientists warn could collapse this century.
Bison banned from federal grazing land
In January 2026, the BLM issued a proposed decision to revoke American Prairie’s bison grazing permits on 63,000 acres of public land in north-central Montana. The agency had approved those permits in 2022 and defended them in court for two years. Under Burgum, it reversed its own position.
American Prairie, represented by Earthjustice, filed a formal protest. So did the Coalition of Large Tribes (COLT), representing more than 50 tribes and over half the Native American population in the country. COLT warned that as written, the decision would make it nearly impossible for any tribal government or tribal citizen herd to qualify for a BLM grazing lease.
”We should not have the federal government saying only cattle get affordable BLM leases. It is just so stupid the way they are doing this. It is DEI for cows.”
OJ Semans Sr., Executive Director of the Coalition of Large Tribes and member of the Rosebud Sioux, Inside Climate NewsThe administration claims it spared tribal herds. The tribes themselves disagree.
| Who filed protests | What they argued |
|---|---|
| American Prairie (via Earthjustice) | BLM reversed decades of practice, conflicts with Montana state law |
| Coalition of Large Tribes (COLT) | No tribal herd could qualify under the proposed language |
| Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe | Decision ignores treaty rights and tribal stewardship authority |
| Defenders of Wildlife, Western Watersheds Project | Violates environmental review requirements |
Administration claims it spared tribal herds. The tribes themselves disagree.
Inside Climate News →Buffalo sustained entire nations for thousands of years. The Indian Buffalo Management Act would give tribal nations direct authority over buffalo restoration on their lands. Congress has not acted on it.
The Public Lands Rule is dead
On May 12, 2026, the BLM finalized the repeal of the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, better known as the Public Lands Rule. That rule, finalized in 2024, established conservation as a land use equal in importance to mining, drilling, and logging on BLM-managed land. It was the first time the agency formally recognized that keeping land intact was a legitimate use of public land.
Burgum opposed the rule before he became Interior Secretary. As governor of North Dakota, he sued the Interior Department at least five times. Now he runs it.
On his first full day as secretary, Burgum directed his staff to reinstate all energy leases canceled under the Biden administration and to offer more parcels of public land for oil and gas drilling. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, the BLM leased 25,038 acres for over $39 million. In fiscal year 2026, the agency has scheduled 26 competitive lease sales, including 357,337 acres in Wyoming alone.
Without the Public Lands Rule, there is no federal framework requiring BLM to weigh conservation against extraction. Drilling, mining, and logging now operate on public land with fewer constraints than at any point since the Federal Land Policy and Management Act passed in 1976.
The grazing fee subsidy nobody talks about
The federal grazing fee for 2026 is $1.69 per animal unit month. One animal unit month is one cow and her calf grazing on public land for 30 days. The fee on comparable private land in the West averages over $20.
The formula that produces this number was set by the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978 and locked into place by a 1986 presidential executive order. It uses a 1966 base value of $1.23, adjusted annually by beef cattle prices, private lease rates, and production costs. Congress has never updated the formula.
| Year | Federal fee per AUM | Approximate private rate per AUM |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $1.87 | $22.60 |
| 2018 | $1.41 | $23.40 |
| 2019-2024 | $1.35 | $20.00-$24.00 |
| 2025 | $1.35 | $23.00+ |
| 2026 | $1.69 | $23.00+ |
Formula set by the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978, locked by 1986 executive order. GAO has called the fee a subsidy multiple times.
BLM →The Government Accountability Office has called the fee a subsidy multiple times. The BLM spends more administering the grazing program than it collects in fees. Taxpayers cover the difference while public land takes the damage.
The Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (H.R. 5785) would let ranchers voluntarily return their permits and permanently retire the grazing allotment. It would not force anyone off the land. It would give ranchers who want to stop grazing a way to do it without losing the value of their permit. The bill has been introduced in every Congress since 2003. It has never received a floor vote.
Wildlife corridors: the legislation that could actually help
Animals do not recognize property lines or agency boundaries. When habitat gets carved into isolated patches by roads, fences, and development, species decline even inside protected areas. They need connected corridors to migrate, breed, and adapt to changing conditions.
The Wildlife Corridors and Habitat Connectivity Conservation Act (H.R. 8438) would establish a National Wildlife Corridor System, create a grant program for habitat connectivity projects, and allow tribes to nominate corridors within their lands for federal protection. It has been introduced in some form in every Congress since 2010. It has never passed.
The bill would also fund wildlife crossings (bridges, tunnels, and retrofitted culverts that let animals cross roads safely). These structures reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions, which kill an estimated 1 to 2 million large animals per year in the United States and cause over $8 billion in property damage annually.
Protect yourself right now
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Follow the science agencies. When EPA or NOAA makes a decision that affects your community, comment on it. Federal rulemaking requires public comment periods. Your comments become part of the legal record, and courts look at them when reviewing agency actions. Track open comment periods at regulations.gov.
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Support the legal fights. Organizations like Earthjustice, Western Watersheds Project, and Defenders of Wildlife are filing the lawsuits that block illegal rollbacks. Their work is funded by donations, not government contracts.
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Talk about public land. Most Americans do not know they own 640 million acres of federal land, or that it is being leased for a fraction of market rate, or that the agencies managing it are losing staff by the thousands. Tell someone who does not already know.
Last updated June 3, 2026