Environment
A livable planet -
or nothing else matters.
Project 2025 handed fossil fuel companies the keys to our pollution rules. Then it set about tearing down fifty years of clean air and water protections. The planet cannot wait for a slow response. Project 2029 proposes climate action at the scale the crisis demands.
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.
Yearly cost of climate disasters in the United States. Taxpayers and homeowners pay it, not the fossil fuel companies whose emissions cause the damage.
Extra early deaths per year caused directly by the air pollution rollbacks under Project 2025, per EPA's own analysis
Americans drinking from water systems with violations. PFAS, lead pipes, and farm runoff went unaddressed through five years of weak enforcement.
of U.S. electricity could come from renewable sources by 2035 with technology that exists today. The only barrier is political will.
Why This Happened
Wrecking the environment was the plan, not a side effect.
The fossil fuel industry has spent decades and billions of dollars on one goal. Delay, distort, and defeat climate action. Exxon's own scientists found in the 1970s that burning fossil fuels would cause disastrous warming. The company then spent forty years funding think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation. The goal was to create public doubt about that science. Project 2025 is, in large part, that influence campaign turned into policy.
When Project 2025 took effect, the EPA's budget was cut by about 30%. Its enforcement budget was cut by 40%. Its research and development funding was cut by 50%. Staff fell from roughly 15,000 to 11,000. Independent scientists were purged from science advisory panels. Industry reps and climate deniers took their seats. The "secret science" rule came back. It lets the EPA ignore peer-reviewed studies if the raw data is not public. The rule was built to throw out health research the industry did not like. Penalties for polluters dropped 85%. Criminal referrals dropped 60%. Inspections dropped 30%.
The damage goes beyond weaker rules. The Clean Power Plan was repealed. The Paris Agreement was abandoned again. Limits on methane leaks from oil and gas sites were dropped. Waters of the United States protections guard drinking water for 117 million Americans. They were narrowed until they meant almost nothing. Communities of color already breathe 66% more particulate air pollution than white communities. They were hit hardest. 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 shut down.
This damage cannot be undone on a human timescale. Extinctions are forever. Once a climate tipping point is crossed, it cannot be uncrossed. The window to hold warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is narrow and closing. Project 2029 proposes action at the scale and speed the science demands, not the scale that is politically easy.
What Project 2025 Did to the EPA
- ● Cut EPA staff from 15,000 to 11,000. Got rid of enforcement agents. Purged independent scientists from advisory panels and replaced them with industry reps.
- ● Pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement and repealed the Clean Power Plan. That broke global promises and locked in more decades of power plant carbon emissions.
- ● Repealed methane leak rules for oil and gas sites. Killed California's Clean Air Act waiver, which blocked the state from leading on vehicle emissions.
- ● Narrowed Waters of the United States protections. Millions of miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands lost coverage. That removed safeguards for drinking water sources serving 117 million Americans.
- ● Shut down the EPA Office of Environmental Justice. Killed its screening tools. Ended outreach programs in the frontline communities that bear the most pollution.
- ● Delayed PFAS drinking water rules and refused to list PFAS chemicals under Superfund. Millions of Americans are left drinking tainted water with no legal way to go after polluters.
The Plan
What Project 2029 proposes.
Based on Chapters 12 (Energy) and 13 (EPA) of Project 2029. Specific bills. Real timelines. Constitutional authority for every proposal.
Clean Air Act Restoration and Strengthening
Enforce the standards the science demands, not the ones industry lobbied for
Right away, tighten the particulate matter (PM2.5) standard from 12 to 8-10 micrograms per cubic meter per year. EPA scientists have urged this for years, but Project 2025 blocked it. Tighten the ozone standard from 70 to 60 parts per billion. Restore and strengthen the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants, requiring maximum achievable control technology. Bring back California's Clean Air Act waiver so states can set vehicle emission standards stricter than the federal floor. Double the EPA enforcement budget to $1.5 billion a year. Reverse the cuts that lowered inspections 30% and penalties 85%. Create a federal Clean Electricity Standard: 80% zero-carbon electricity by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
EPA Authority Restoration Act
Reverse West Virginia v. EPA by law. Give the agency its tools back.
Pass a targeted law that clearly gives the EPA the power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant that endangers public health and welfare. That directly reverses West Virginia v. EPA (2022), which the Supreme Court used to strip the agency of its Clean Power Plan authority. Bring back the Clean Power Plan framework under Clean Air Act Section 111, so power plants must move to cleaner energy. Restore all methane rules for oil and gas operations, with monitoring requirements and no compliance loopholes. Restore the science advisory committees, and require that most members have no financial ties to the industries they oversee. Repeal the 'secret science' rule. Require every EPA decision to rest on the full body of relevant peer-reviewed science.
Environmental Justice Act
Frontline communities breathe the worst air. They deserve the most protection.
Restore and greatly strengthen the EPA Office of Environmental Justice, with full staffing and a $25 billion Environmental Justice Fund. The fund pays for pollution cleanup, green infrastructure, and health monitoring in overburdened communities. Give environmental justice communities legal standing to challenge permits that dump unfair pollution on them. That creates a real right to take part in decisions about their air and water. Require a cumulative impact review for every new industrial permit in these communities. The question is not just 'does this one facility meet the standard' but 'how much pollution does this community already carry.' Ban new fossil fuel infrastructure within one mile of schools, hospitals, and homes in designated environmental justice zones. Communities of color already breathe 66% more particulate pollution than white communities. This stops.
Clean Water and PFAS Accountability Act
Every American deserves clean water. Make polluters pay for what they poisoned.
List PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances under CERCLA (the Superfund law). That gives the EPA cleanup authority and makes polluters, not taxpayers, pay for it. Set maximum contaminant levels for all PFAS compounds in drinking water. Require every public water system to test for PFAS and report the results publicly. Restore Clean Water Act protections for Waters of the United States. That means a law reversing Sackett v. EPA, one that clearly protects tributaries, wetlands with a significant nexus to navigable waters, and ephemeral streams. These are drinking water sources for 117 million Americans. Fund $50 billion in water system upgrades for communities with contaminated water. Restore and strengthen limits on coal power plant wastewater, and require the closure of coal ash ponds that leak toxics into groundwater.
Climate Mobilization and Resilience Act
Stop paying to rebuild in the same flood zone. Build for the climate we have.
Create a National Climate Resilience Infrastructure Fund: $100 billion over 10 years to harden critical infrastructure against climate change. That means seawalls and flood defenses, wildfire-resistant power lines, heat-resilient transit, and drought-resistant water systems. Require all federally funded infrastructure to use 50-year climate projections in design and siting. No more building yesterday's infrastructure for tomorrow's climate. Reform FEMA disaster relief to favor voluntary buyouts in extreme high-risk flood zones over endless rebuilding. Create a Civilian Climate Corps of 300,000 workers, modeled on the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps. They would restore ecosystems and wetlands, reduce wildfire risk, and build resilience projects, at prevailing wages with registered apprenticeship pathways. Rejoin the Paris Agreement and take back U.S. leadership on climate.
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. Speed up chemical safety reviews under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Any industry risk assessment sent to the EPA must be independently checked before the agency relies on it. Restore limits on chlorpyrifos, a farm pesticide linked to brain and nerve damage in children. EPA's own scientists opposed approving it. Tighten limits on neonicotinoids, which are linked to bee colony collapse. Require full public disclosure of every pesticide ingredient in commercial and consumer products. Expand protections for farmworkers exposed to pesticides: required notice, re-entry waiting periods, and medical monitoring for workers in high-exposure jobs.
Take Action
Act on climate. Now.
The window to prevent 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.
Register to Vote →Demand Action
Call your senators and representative. Ask them to cosponsor clean energy bills, EPA authority restoration, and PFAS accountability bills.
Find Your Rep →Print & Share
Download the environment one-pager from Project 2029. Share it in your community. Climate action needs a majority that understands what is at stake.
Get One-Pager →Read Chapters 12-13
The full energy and EPA reform blueprints. Every policy, legal citation, and step to carry it out, from clean electricity to PFAS accountability.
Read the Plan →Share This
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