Rewarding Polluters, Harming Health: A Statement From the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health on EPA’s Rollback of Clean Air and Climate Protections

Over the past year, the Trump Administration has taken a sweeping set of actions that roll back longstanding clean air and climate protections—policies that for decades have reduced illness, saved lives, and lowered costs for American families. From weakening fuel-efficiency standards and attempting to rescind the EPA’s Endangerment Finding, to undermining limits on fine particulate air pollution and power plant emissions, these decisions share a common thread: prioritizing the interests of major polluters over the health of the public. 

Taken together, these actions will lead to dirtier air, higher healthcare costs, and greater harm to those already most vulnerable—children, older adults, pregnant people, and communities historically overburdened by pollution. Rolling back CAFE standards locks families into vehicles that burn more gas and cost more to operate. Weakening PM2.5 protections under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards means more asthma attacks, heart disease, and premature deaths. Undermining power plant pollution standards exposes communities to mercury, soot, and climate pollution that damage developing brains and strain hospitals. Attempting to rescind the Endangerment Finding dismisses decades of scientific evidence showing that climate pollution threatens public health and welfare, opening the door to unchecked emissions that worsen heat, wildfires, and storms devastating our communities. 

In response, the health community has shown up—again and again. Health professionals across the country have submitted public comments, shared patient stories, signed joint letters, and spoken out in the media to make clear what is at stake. Through coordinated action led by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, hundreds of clinicians and more than 120 organizations have raised their voices to defend clean air protections and the health gains they deliver. This engagement reflects a growing consensus within medicine: protecting health requires protecting the systems that make clean air, safe energy, and climate stability possible. 

As physicians, nurses, and public health professionals, we see the consequences of these policy decisions not in abstract terms, but in emergency rooms, clinics, and communities. Silence is not an option when policies threaten to reverse decades of progress and put our patients at risk. 

“Health professionals have a responsibility to speak up in moments like this because our patients and communities are paying the price,” said Dr. Lisa Patel, executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health. “Clean air protections are among the most effective public health tools we have. When they are dismantled, we see the consequences in children struggling to breathe, families facing higher medical bills, and communities pushed further into harm. Our voices matter because health should never be collateral damage.”

The views expressed here are of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and not necessarily of its medical society members.