Let’s stop pretending this is about policy differences.
The Trump administration, through its weaponized EPA and fossil fuel-funded cronies, just escalated a full-blown war on the planet — and by extension, every working-class and marginalized person on it.
This isn’t deregulation.
This isn’t about “freedom” or “energy independence.”
It’s about death. It’s about disease. It’s about profit for the few and catastrophe for the rest of us.
This week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin — a failed New York politician and MAGA loyalist — announced plans to scrap the 2009 “endangerment finding,” one of the only regulatory tools left to limit carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act. That finding allows the government to hold industries accountable for poisoning the air we breathe and the climate we depend on.
By tearing it up, Zeldin is doing exactly what he was installed to do: serve Big Oil, Big Gas, and Big Coal at the expense of human life. This is corruption in broad daylight — not metaphorical, not symbolic, but bought and paid for by dirty energy billionaires who see climate collapse as just another line item in their quarterly earnings report.
As Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said plainly, this is the “wet dream of the dirtiest players in the fossil fuel industry,” bought with “dark money” and sealed with a handshake in some boardroom far from the flood zones and fire lines the rest of us live in.
And what did Zeldin say to justify this genocidal move? He claimed that Obama and Biden “twisted the law” to burden Americans with hidden taxes — as if climate action is the problem, not the corporations pouring carcinogens into our lungs while jacking up energy prices. This isn’t regulation versus deregulation — it’s people versus profit.
Progressives have been sounding the alarm for decades. And still, liberal centrists in power tiptoe around the issue, hoping for bipartisan deals and “pragmatic” climate conversations. Meanwhile, Republicans like Sen. Shelley Moore Capito celebrate the announcement like it’s a game — giddy to “get rid of overregulation,” while West Virginia’s poorest communities suffer from decades of environmental degradation.
Even Sen. Rick Scott from Florida — a state literally drowning in seawater and debt from climate-fueled storms — claims he “didn’t see” the announcement. Either he’s lying, or he’s checked out. Either way, he’s complicit.
Progressives understand something liberals often won’t admit: this is class warfare by other means. Climate breakdown doesn’t hit hedge fund managers first. It hits renters who can’t afford flood insurance. It hits Black and Brown families living near toxic plants. It hits pregnant women, asthmatic kids, and elderly folks without air conditioning.
Senator Ed Markey called it what it is: “The greatest crime against nature ever committed in American and world history.” He’s not exaggerating. Stripping protections from carbon polluters will lead to a spike in asthma, cancer, birth defects, and death — and the Trump administration knows it. That’s the point.
This isn’t just about CO₂ levels. It’s about a political machine designed to make sure polluters never face consequences, no matter how many people they kill in the process. The GOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry. And Trump is the CEO of collapse.
To his credit, Whitehouse remains hopeful — noting some Republicans are quietly having serious conversations about climate risks to real estate, insurance, and infrastructure. But even he admits Trump’s strategy is to terrorize Republicans into silence, with fossil fuel donations doing the rest.
And here’s the kicker: the facts haven’t changed. The science is solid. The disasters are increasing. The stakes are existential. But until we stop treating this like a policy disagreement and start calling it what it is — an elite-backed, oil-fueled war on our future — the people in power will keep cashing checks and watching the world burn.
Progressives aren’t waiting around for another bipartisan brunch. We know that every day wasted is another nail in the coffin. The battle lines are clear:
- People vs. Profit
- Science vs. Corruption
- Future vs. Extinction
Zeldin’s EPA just made their side clear. So must we.