Last month, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rollback on regulations that control greenhouse gas emissions across the nation..
According to the White House, this action “will save the American people $1.3 trillion dollars in crushing regulations” (Karoline Leavitt 2026). This act of deregulation could have major consequences for the American people due to the increasing risk of negative health effects caused by air and water pollution. The detrimental impacts on the environment and on human welfare could be irreversible.
If greenhouse gases are not regulated, the contamination of water sources and the air will eventually reach the point where they compromise living conditions due to high toxicity levels.
Some critics of the rollbacks also argue that the lack of regulations will contribute to the acceleration of global warming. For instance, the American Geophysical Union has called out the government for allegedly providing “inaccurate and cherry-picked” data regarding how altering the regulations would affect climate change progression when they wrote their draft for their proposal, noting that greenhouse gases have been higher than at any other time in the last 800,000 years. In addition, some scientific journals have also found holes in federally endorsed statements that state there is no substantial evidence that climate change exists and is happening.
To counter the threat of deregulation, the Natural Resources Defense Council has stepped in, claiming that the EPA will have a difficult time providing substantial evidence as to why they should change this law because of the “mountain of evidence showing that greenhouse gas pollution is fueling climate change and intensifying harms like wildfires, floods, and heat waves” (David Doniger 2026).
If the EPA passes this proposal, it could have worldwide effects on every person, animal, and nook of this Earth. Some people may believe that climate change has no effect on them, but by the time they begin to recognize its effects, it will already be too late to prevent the environmental consequences.
