Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership” proposes dramatic structural, legal, and policy changes for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Authored by former Trump EPA officials like Mandy Gunasekara, the plan seeks to radically scale back the EPA’s power, align it more closely with industry interests, and reduce its role in enforcing environmental protections.

📉 Negative Effects on the EPA from Project 2025

1. Drastic Reduction of Regulatory Authority

Goal: Shift EPA from a regulatory agency to a research and advisory body.

Effect: Undermines the EPA’s enforcement capabilities under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other environmental laws.

Result: Industries could pollute more freely with less fear of regulatory penalties.

2. Decentralization and Relocation

Proposal: Move EPA headquarters out of Washington, D.C., to states like Texas or Florida.

Effect: Severely weakens interagency coordination and professional oversight.

Result: Institutional brain drain, delayed regulatory response, and increased industry lobbying at state levels.

3. Staff Purge and Political Loyalty Tests

Proposal: Remove career staff deemed insufficiently aligned with conservative ideology.

Effect: Loss of scientific expertise, legal experience, and technical staff.

Result: Politicization of environmental science and data.

4. Rollback of Climate Policies

Goal: End climate change initiatives and reverse Biden-era clean energy rules.

Effect: Withdrawal from international climate agreements, rollback of vehicle emissions standards, and fossil fuel expansion.

Result: Increased greenhouse gas emissions, global reputational damage, and intensified climate risks.

5. Industry-Centric Regulation

Proposal: Give polluters more self-regulation through “cooperative federalism.”

Effect: Regulatory capture — companies write and enforce their own standards.

Result: Water, air, and soil quality decline; public health consequences increase.

6. Targeting of Environmental Justice Programs

Goal: End equity-based funding and legal efforts in disadvantaged communities.

Effect: Stops addressing the disproportionate environmental burdens on low-income and minority populations.

Result: Widened disparities in health, safety, and environmental quality.

🔥 Worst-Case Effects of Project 2025 on the EPA

❌ Environmental Collapse in Marginalized Communities

Disbanding enforcement and monitoring units could lead to unchecked pollution in already vulnerable areas.Communities of color and low-income residents would bear the brunt of industrial toxins without recourse.

❌ Climate Inaction Amplified

Global climate efforts would be set back a decade or more.U.S. emissions would rise, contributing to extreme weather, rising sea levels, and agricultural instability.

❌ Irreversible Damage to Public Health

Loss of regulation over air and water quality standards could lead to spikes in asthma, cancers, and neurological disorders.Increased incidents of contaminated drinking water and toxic waste exposure.

❌ Institutional Collapse of the EPA

With gutted staff, sidelined scientists, and a politicized mission, the EPA would lose credibility.

International and domestic trust in environmental oversight would evaporate.