Environment

A livable planet -
or nothing else matters.

Project 2025 handed fossil fuel companies the keys to environmental regulation and set about systematically dismantling five decades of environmental protection. The planet cannot wait for a slower response. Project 2029 proposes climate mobilization at the scale the crisis requires.

What's Happening Now

The climate crisis is already here.

It's costing American lives and American dollars. Every year of inaction makes it worse.

$150B+

Annual cost of climate-related disasters in the United States - paid by taxpayers and homeowners, not the fossil fuel companies whose emissions drive the damage

1,400+

Additional premature deaths per year directly caused by the air pollution rollbacks enacted under Project 2025 - per EPA's own analysis

77M

Americans drinking from water systems with violations - PFAS contamination, lead pipes, and agricultural runoff left unaddressed by five years of weakened enforcement

80%

of U.S. electricity that could be generated from renewable sources by 2035 using technology that exists today - the only barrier is political will

Why This Happened

Environmental destruction was the plan, not a side effect.

The fossil fuel industry has spent decades and billions of dollars to delay, distort, and defeat climate action. Exxon's own scientists concluded in the 1970s that burning fossil fuels would cause catastrophic warming. The company then spent forty years funding think tanks - including the Heritage Foundation - to manufacture public doubt about that science. Project 2025 is, in significant part, the policy expression of that decades-long influence campaign.

When Project 2025 took effect, the EPA's budget was cut by approximately 30%, its enforcement budget by 40%, and its research and development funding by 50%. Staff was reduced from roughly 15,000 to 11,000. Scientific advisory committees were purged of independent scientists and restocked with industry representatives and climate deniers. The "secret science" rule was reinstated, allowing the EPA to exclude peer-reviewed studies from its regulatory analyses if the underlying raw data was not publicly available - a rule designed specifically to eliminate inconvenient health research. Penalties for polluters dropped 85%. Criminal referrals dropped 60%. Inspections dropped 30%.

The damage extends beyond weakened rules. The Clean Power Plan was repealed. The Paris Agreement was abandoned again. Methane leak limits on oil and gas operations were rescinded. Waters of the United States protections - which safeguard drinking water for 117 million Americans - were narrowed to the point of irrelevance. Communities of color, who already breathe 66% more particulate air pollution than white communities, faced the most severe consequences. Two million African Americans live within half a mile of oil and gas facilities. Latino children have 40% higher asthma rates. Environmental justice offices were disbanded.

Environmental destruction is not reversible on human timescales. Extinctions are permanent. Climate tipping points, once crossed, cannot be uncrossed. The window for limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is narrow and closing. Project 2029 proposes action at the scale and speed the science requires - not the scale that is politically comfortable.

What Project 2025 Did to the EPA

● Cut EPA staff from 15,000 to 11,000, eliminated enforcement agents, and purged independent scientists from advisory committees - replacing them with industry representatives
● Withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and repealed the Clean Power Plan - abandoning international obligations and locking in additional decades of power plant carbon emissions
● Repealed methane leak regulations on oil and gas operations and rescinded California's Clean Air Act waiver, blocking state leadership on vehicle emissions
● Narrowed Waters of the United States protections, removing coverage for millions of miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands - eliminating safeguards for drinking water sources serving 117 million Americans
● Disbanded the EPA Office of Environmental Justice, eliminated environmental justice screening tools, and ended community engagement programs in the frontline communities bearing the highest pollution burden
● Delayed PFAS drinking water regulations and refused Superfund designation for PFAS chemicals - leaving millions of Americans drinking contaminated water with no legal recourse against polluters

The Plan

What Project 2029 proposes.

Based on Chapters 12 (Energy) and 13 (EPA) of Project 2029. Specific legislation. Real timelines. Constitutional authority for every proposal.

Clean Air Act Restoration and Strengthening

Enforce the standards the science demands - not the standards industry lobbied for

Immediately strengthen particulate matter (PM2.5) standards from 12 to 8-10 micrograms per cubic meter annually - in line with what EPA scientists have recommended for years but which was blocked under Project 2025. Strengthen ozone standards from 70 to 60 parts per billion. Restore and strengthen Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants, requiring maximum achievable control technology. Reinstate California's Clean Air Act waiver, restoring state authority to set vehicle emission standards stricter than federal minimums. Double the EPA enforcement budget to $1.5 billion annually and reverse the cuts that reduced inspections 30% and penalties 85%. Establish a federal Clean Electricity Standard requiring 80% zero-carbon electricity by 2030 and 100% by 2035.

Legal Authority: Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. § 7401); Energy Policy Act; Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. § 824); Commerce Clause

EPA Authority Restoration Act

Reverse West Virginia v. EPA through legislation - give the agency its tools back

Introduce targeted legislation explicitly authorizing the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant that poses a significant danger to public health and welfare - directly reversing the damage done by West Virginia v. EPA (2022), which the Supreme Court used to strip the agency of its Clean Power Plan authority. Reinstate the Clean Power Plan framework under Clean Air Act Section 111, requiring power plants to move to cleaner energy sources. Restore all methane regulations for oil and gas operations, reinstating monitoring requirements and closing compliance loopholes. Restore the scientific advisory committee structure, requiring that a majority of members have no financial conflict of interest with the industries they regulate. Repeal the 'secret science' rule and require all EPA regulatory decisions to be based on the full body of relevant peer-reviewed scientific evidence.

Legal Authority: Clean Air Act § 111 (42 U.S.C. § 7411); Massachusetts v. EPA (2007); Article I legislative power to define agency authority

Environmental Justice Act

Frontline communities breathe the worst air. They deserve the most protection.

Restore and dramatically strengthen the EPA Office of Environmental Justice with full staffing and a $25 billion Environmental Justice Fund for pollution cleanup, green infrastructure, and health monitoring in overburdened communities. Establish legal standing for environmental justice communities to challenge permitting decisions that impose disproportionate pollution burdens - creating a meaningful right to participate in the decisions that determine their air and water quality. Require cumulative impact assessment for all new industrial permits in environmental justice communities: not just 'does this single facility meet the standard' but 'what is the total pollution burden this community already carries.' Prohibit new fossil fuel infrastructure within one mile of schools, hospitals, and residential areas in designated environmental justice zones. Communities of color already breathe 66% more particulate pollution than white communities - this stops.

Legal Authority: Clean Air Act § 7401; Title VI Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. § 2000d); 14th Amendment Equal Protection; Executive Order authority

Clean Water and PFAS Accountability Act

Every American deserves clean water - make polluters pay for what they poisoned

Designate PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances under CERCLA (the Superfund law), enabling EPA cleanup authority and making polluters - not taxpayers - pay for remediation. Establish maximum contaminant levels for all PFAS compounds in drinking water and require all public water systems to test and report PFAS levels publicly. Restore Clean Water Act protections for Waters of the United States - reversing the Sackett v. EPA damage through legislation that explicitly protects tributaries, wetlands with significant nexus to navigable waters, and ephemeral streams that are drinking water sources for 117 million Americans. Fund $50 billion for water infrastructure upgrades in communities with contaminated water. Restore and strengthen effluent limits for coal power plant wastewater, requiring closure of coal ash ponds that leach toxics into groundwater.

Legal Authority: CERCLA (42 U.S.C. § 9601); Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. § 300f); Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. § 1251); Article I legislative power

Climate Mobilization and Resilience Act

Stop paying to rebuild in the same flood zone. Build for the climate we have.

Establish a National Climate Resilience Infrastructure Fund of $100 billion over 10 years for climate-hardening critical infrastructure: seawalls and flood defenses, wildfire-resistant power lines, heat-resilient transportation systems, and drought-resistant water systems. Require all federally funded infrastructure to incorporate 50-year climate projections in design and siting decisions - ending the practice of building yesterday's infrastructure for tomorrow's climate. Reform FEMA disaster relief to prioritize voluntary community buyouts from extreme high-risk flood zones rather than perpetual rebuilding cycles. Establish a Civilian Climate Corps of 300,000 workers - modeled on the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps - for ecosystem restoration, wildfire mitigation, wetland restoration, and resilience infrastructure, with prevailing wages and registered apprenticeship pathways. Rejoin the Paris Agreement and reassume U.S. international climate leadership.

Legal Authority: Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief Act; National Flood Insurance Act; Article I appropriations power; Treaty Power (Art. II, § 2)

Toxic Chemical and Pesticide Accountability Act

Ban asbestos. Regulate PFAS. Stop approving pesticides that kill bees and children.

Asbestos is still legal in the United States - the only developed nation that has not banned it. This ends. Ban asbestos outright under TSCA authority. Accelerate chemical safety reviews under the Toxic Substances Control Act, with a standing requirement that industry risk assessments submitted to EPA be independently verified before regulatory reliance. Restore restrictions on chlorpyrifos - an agricultural pesticide EPA's own scientists opposed approving, linked to neurological harm in children - and strengthen restrictions on neonicotinoids linked to bee colony collapse. Require full public disclosure of all pesticide ingredients in commercial and consumer products. Expand worker protections for farmworkers exposed to pesticides, including mandatory notification, re-entry intervals, and medical monitoring for workers in high-exposure occupations.

Legal Authority: Toxic Substances Control Act (15 U.S.C. § 2601); FIFRA (7 U.S.C. § 136); CERCLA; Occupational Safety and Health Act

Take Action

Act on climate. Now.

The window for preventing the worst is narrow. Every election, every call, every conversation matters.

Vote Climate

Climate deniers and fossil fuel allies hold seats in every legislature. Vote them out. Replace them with climate champions who will vote for EPA authority and clean energy.