Due to Deregulation, Trump Is Putting The Health Of Americans At Most Risk In These Counties

An industrial power plant with heavy machinery and equipment behind a chain link fence during sunset, showcasing energy infrastructure.

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Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it would repeal dozens of the nation’s most important environmental regulations. In the historic rollback, the EPA unveiled a list of 31 regulations it will scale back or eliminate, including clean water protections for certain waterways and wetlands, fuel efficiency and emissions standards for vehicles, and limitations on emissions from power plants.

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One of the most significant actions announced by the EPA is a reconsideration of regulations on power plants, specifically the suite of rules called the Greenhouse Gas Standards and Guidelines for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants enacted by the Biden administration in 2024. While the existing framework forces power plants to achieve a 90% reduction in carbon emissions by 2032, which federal officials forecast to prevent 1,500 to 3,600 premature deaths annually by 2030, easing of the Biden-era rules could put millions of Americans at risk. A look at where the nation’s dirtiest power plants are highlights the communities most at risk from the EPA regulations rollback.

To determine where the Trump rollback is putting the most people at risk, Climate Crisis 247 reviewed data on power plant emissions from the EPA. Power plants were ranked based on total annual carbon dioxide emissions. Supplemental data on annual particulate matter emissions, nitrogen oxides emissions, and downstream population impacted by each power plant are also from the EPA. Estimates for the downstream population impacted by each power plant’s emissions are based on the EPA’s Power Plants and Neighboring Communities Mapping Tool.