It’s beginning to look a lot like...a climate crisis

For over 50 years, the EPA has been responsible for ensuring that American air and water is safe. December 2, 1970 marked the inauguration of an agency that has unilaterally brought monumental benefits to the American quality of life — from tackling forever chemicals like PFAS in our water to working with global partners to fix the growing gap in our ozone layer. The EPA is the one agency to which we can attribute tangible change and benefits for Americans across all strata of life. Because the environment doesn’t discriminate — regardless of social status or party line, a warming atmosphere chokes everyone equally.

Yet now, the EPA’s mission has shifted significantly, and politics has entered the arena of environmental protection in a way never seen before. The EPA’s mandate has been warped and its authority diminished. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has openly reframed the agency’s purpose, saying that the agency now aims to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business.”

Let’s be clear: the EPA’s job should not be to make buying a home more affordable. It should be to make sure that our homes aren’t poisoning us, and our cars aren’t producing emissions that burn our lungs. The EPA, by its principles set out in Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” ought to operate separately from the free market. Capitalism already does well enough of a job of cutting the most corners and finding the cheapest solution possible, often at our expense. We must not forget the impetus of Carson’s novel: that the toxins released into our environment are often invisible to the naked eye, yet their effects are very real on the human body.

These changes couldn’t come at a worse time. With the global AI boom, the United States is quickly becoming the nexus of new data centers to power massive AI engines. And this all comes at a harrowing energy cost. For the first time in over two decades, electricity demand is on the rise again. Now more than ever, we needed the EPA to step in. To regulate and to fulfill its initial mission set in motion by Carson’s book.

The changes at the EPA are supposedly part of a broader campaign to put America first. Yet taking a step backwards in energy regulation does anything but and betrays the American people. A systematic gutting of the agency by firing scientists, cutting funding, and staffing industry lobbyists cripples the agency’s very foundation. Through the elimination of regulations like the “Good Neighbor Rule,” a policy which mandated states to address pollution drifting across borders, the EPA essentially absolves corporations of any accountability for the toxins they create. Federal changes affect New Jersey and Princeton directly — dirty air minds no borders, but neither should our resolve. We must urge our lawmakers to put the climate agenda first, for both our lives and our livelihoods.

As PHS students go out to vote, make the environment a top issue on your ballot. Because while the economy or education could seem important, none of it matters when our health is being directly undermined. It is an invisible virus with lasting afteraffects. Remember that your fight matters, and it has tangible consequences for your community. In the absence of clear, concrete, and measurable regulation, it is time we realize that where Washington D.C. has stepped away, Trenton must step in.