How the Trump Administration’s Embrace of Oil, Gas, and Chemical Industry Interests Will Endanger Children’s Health

America’s future is directly tied to the health and well-being of its children. Yet a July 2025 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reveals a worrying decline in U.S. children’s health over the past two decades. Researchers link this trend to a range of factors, including environmental toxins and climate change, along with unhealthy food, poverty, stress, and other mental health challenges as well as limited access to preventive health care. These conditions can trigger acute and chronic health problems, especially for children.¹

The JAMA study found that by 2023, a child in the United States was 15 to 20 percent more likely to develop a chronic condition than they were in 2011—including neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, behavioral problems, developmental delays, and ADHD.² In addition, the study revealed that between 2007 and 2022, American children were 80 percent more likely to die than children in other high-income countries, with that rate increasing since 2010.³ A 2020 UNICEF report evaluating the overall health and well-being of children ranked the United States 36th out of 38 high-income countries.⁴

Air pollution is a leading environmental threat to children’s health: In 2021, it was the second-biggest risk factor globally for death among children younger than age 5.⁵ Children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, which can cause serious harm to their cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, endocrine, and immune systems.⁶ Coal- and gas-fired power plants; the oil and gas industry; pesticide, fertilizer, petrochemical, chemical, and plastic manufacturers; and diesel- and gas-powered vehicles are significant sources of pollution in the air, water, and food that endanger children’s health.⁷

President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have promised to improve children’s health through a “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda. Their stated goal is to “transform our nation’s food, fitness, air, water, soil and medicine” and “[end] the childhood chronic disease crisis” by addressing root causes, including exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), called “forever chemicals,” and other dangerous chemicals, as well as heavy metals such as lead and mercury, pesticides, and other toxins.⁸ Evidence-based research shows that when children are less exposed to toxic pollution and chemicals, their brains are better protected. This reduces the risk of cognitive decline, autism, and ADHD while also helping prevent damage to children’s lungs, immune systems, and futures.⁹

However, instead of protecting children’s health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Administrator Lee Zeldin and the Trump administration is doing the opposite. By removing lifesaving environmental protections and failing to limit harmful chemicals and toxic pollution emitted by gas and coal power plants, oil and gas refineries, petrochemical, chemical and pesticide manufacturers, and other industries, the administration is letting corporate polluters poison the air that kids and families breathe and the water they drink.¹⁰ These actions will expose children to more asthma-triggering particle pollution (PM2.5), also known as soot; more brain-damaging heavy metals; more PFAS and other cancer-causing chemicals; more pollutants that increase the risk of autism, ADHD, endocrine and hormone disruption, anxiety, and depression; and more climate-driven health threats. At the same time, the administration is dismantling research and cutting health care, early intervention, and preventive care for children that helps protect them from pollution’s harms.¹¹

This report analyzes how pollution endangers children’s health. It also assesses the avalanche of Trump administration actions to weaken or eliminate environmental safeguards, rigging the system to give corporations a free pass to cut corners and emit more toxic pollution and chemicals that harm kids’ health, all to boost their profits.¹² These actions include rolling back pollution limits and canceling funding and incentives to monitor air quality, reduce pollution, and accelerate clean energy to meet rising energy demand and cut skyrocketing energy bills.

Using data from the Environmental Defense Fund, the report finds that 2.19 million children under age 18—including 569,231 children younger than age 5—live within 3 miles of a fossil fuel power plant, chemical or petrochemical manufacturer, or other industrial polluter that were invited by the EPA to apply for exemptions, or “a free pass,” from toxic air pollution limits under the Trump administration.¹³ In addition, 565,744 children younger than age 18, including 145,740 children under 5, live within 3 miles of a power plant or other corporate polluter that has received a two-year free pass from President Trump to avoid complying with toxic air pollution limits.¹⁴ The six states with the most children living within 3 miles of a corporate polluter with a free pass to pollute are California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Utah.¹⁵

Lastly, this report assesses the administration and congressional Republicans’ plan to strip away essential health care coverage for families through the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and related actions that gut chronic disease research, prevention, and treatment programs critical to children’s health and well-being—all to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. These actions will impose severe, costly, and potentially life-threatening consequences on affected children and families.

Air pollution is the second-leading risk factor for death among children under age 5 globally and is projected to become the leading cause by 2050 as climate change accelerates.¹⁶ Polluted air contains harmful toxins and chemicals linked to asthma and other respiratory diseases that cause both acute harm and can leave lasting damage to children’s developing lungs.¹⁷ The serious risks posed by pollution to cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, endocrine, and hormone disruption systems are also well-documented and life-threatening.¹⁸ Exposure to air pollution is linked to chronic diseases, including childhood cancer, heart and respiratory diseases, diabetes, and obesity, as well as strokes, brain damage, and reproductive and immune system disorders.¹⁹ Even short-term exposure to higher levels of outdoor air pollution is associated with increases in emergency department visits and hospital admissions.²⁰ For the overall population, exposure to soot is linked to an increased risk of death.²¹

Pollution in the air, water, and food is particularly harmful to children. Children’s bodies grow rapidly, and their functioning is shaped by their experiences and exposures. Because their lungs, reproductive systems, brains and central nervous systems, immune systems, and gastrointestinal systems are still developing, they are more sensitive and highly susceptible to the harmful effects of pollution and other toxins. Children are most exposed to pollutants because they breathe, drink, and eat more than adults relative to their weight.²² They also have less control over their environments since they are dependent on adults to care for them; they spend more time outside; and other factors such as their height cause them to be closer to vehicle tailpipes and more likely to put nonfood items in their mouths.²³ ​​Lastly, children do not have the defense systems to detoxify their bodies as efficiently as adults, which can affect brain development.²⁴ According to the American Lung Association’s 2025 report, more than 34.6 million children under age 18 in the United States face health risks because they live in places with failing grades for air loaded with unhealthy amounts of ozone or soot.²⁵

Pollution threatens kids’ brain health and development

The impact of pollution on brain health and development, particularly in children, is becoming better understood.²⁶ A systematic review found that soot exposure, which raises the risk for respiratory and heart diseases, is also linked to neurological disorders.²⁷ Because children’s brains develop rapidly, they are highly susceptible to the harmful effects of exposure to pollution and toxins that can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause lifelong harm.²⁸ Exposure to soot impairs brain development, affecting all cognitive processes,²⁹ including abstract thinking and reasoning, understanding, learning and processing of information, working memory, emotion and behavior management, language development, movement, and mental well-being.³⁰

Reduced IQ, attention deficits, and an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder have all been linked to prenatal and early exposure to air pollution.³¹ Preterm birth, especially for very low birth-weight babies, is also considered a risk factor for autism.³² Women exposed to high levels of soot during pregnancy—particularly in the third trimester³³—may be twice as likely to have a child with autism.³⁴ There is also an increased risk of autism for babies exposed to pollutants from coal-fired power plants, oil refineries, and tailpipe exhaust.³⁵ Exposure to soot during pregnancy and to ozone (O3) following birth—typically within the first six weeks—may present the most risk.³⁶ Prenatal exposure to sulfate from fossil fuel combustion and ammonium from fertilizers and sewage treatment is associated with an autism diagnosis by age 5.³⁷ A 2023 American Psychological Association report also found that exposure to air pollution increases the likelihood of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, ADHD, diminished impulse control, and educational challenges.³⁸

Forever chemicals increase kids’ risk of cancer, accelerated puberty, and developmental delays

PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” are produced by chemical and petrochemical companies and used in fertilizers, pesticides, fire-fighting foam, and many everyday consumer products, including nonstick cookware, clothes, carpets, and more.³⁹ Even tiny amounts of PFAS can endanger kids’ and adults’ health.⁴⁰ Children whose drinking water is contaminated by these chemicals—which stay in the environment for decades and in the human body for years—are at higher risk of cancer, immune system damage, developmental delays, accelerated puberty, and behavioral changes.⁴¹ The Environmental Working Group estimates that more than 200 million Americans could have PFAS in their drinking water.⁴² In addition, chemical and petrochemical plants producing PFAS are often located near watersheds that serve Black, Latino, and Hispanic communities,⁴³ increasing their exposure to these dangerous chemicals in their drinking water.

Kids in communities bombarded by pollution are most at risk

Air pollution harms everyone who breathes, but it is especially damaging to communities that face greater exposure to pollution from power plants, highways, and other sources; limited health care; and added stressors such as poverty and discrimination—including working-class, low-income, Black, and Hispanic communities.⁴⁴ Black Americans, in particular, are more likely than any other group to live in areas with unhealthy air, increasing illness risk.⁴⁵

Because children and pregnant women are among the most susceptible to the harms of pollution, low-income, working-class, Black, and Hispanic pregnant women and children are more vulnerable. In these communities, children face higher exposure to pollution, resulting in elevated toxin levels in their bodies, and they experience higher rates of asthma, learning disabilities, and other health conditions tied to pollution exposure.⁴⁶ For example, preterm birth, associated with maternal exposure to soot or particulate pollution, is more than twice as common among U.S. non-Hispanic Black infants (17.2 percent) than non-Hispanic white infants (7.4 percent).⁴⁷ Similarly, preeclampsia, a serious form of high blood pressure that can lead to illness and death among pregnant women and their babies, is 60 percent more common in Black pregnant women than white pregnant women.⁴⁸

Exposure to pollution increases the risk of poor birth outcomes

Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy increases the risk of stillbirths, fetal deaths, and other poor birth outcomes.⁴⁹ Prenatal exposure to air pollution has been linked to increased risks of low birth weight and harms to children’s brain development, including the risk of autism, along with respiratory infections and other infectious diseases, childhood asthma, cerebral palsy, high blood pressure, and ADHD symptoms.⁵⁰ Traffic-related air pollution exposure during pregnancy increases the risk of hypertensive disorders, a leading cause of preterm birth, low birth weight, and illness and death among pregnant individuals and their babies.⁵¹ In one study, almost 16,000 premature births in 2010 were linked to air pollution in the United States, costing more than $5 billion in health care costs and lost productivity.⁵²

PFAS also are associated with pregnancy complications and poor pregnancy outcomes.⁵³ A recent study found that mothers who drank PFAS-contaminated water had more extremely low-weight births, more extremely preterm births, and higher infant deaths than mothers whose drinking water wells were upstream of PFAS releases.⁵⁴

Pollution risks impose burdens, including economic costs, on kids’ futures

Childhood stressors—such as exposure to air pollution—place children at increased risk of poor physical and mental health outcomes, delays in social and emotional development, and long-term threats to their overall health, well-being,⁶² and economic prosperity.⁶³ In addition, many of the diseases linked to air pollution impose significant economic burdens. For example, asthma attacks often trigger school absences,⁶⁴ reducing children’s instructional time and threatening their growth, development, and futures. From 2008 to 2013, missed school and workdays from asthma alone cost the U.S. economy $3 billion per year.⁶⁵

More extreme weather threatens kids’ health

In addition to pollution, extreme weather events fueled by climate change pose well-established dangers to children and families. A 2024 assessment of peer-reviewed evidence compiled worldwide for more than a decade found that climate change-fueled extreme weather events harm the health and well-being of children and adolescents and are tied to post-traumatic stress and other mental health disorders, asthma and other respiratory illnesses, malnutrition, reduced growth, and other health problems.⁸⁴ Specifically, a June 2025 study by researchers at Queens College found that “prenatal exposure to extreme events related to climate change leads to long-term, negative impacts on children’s brain development.”⁸⁵

Despite commitments by Secretary Kennedy and President Trump to improve children’s health by reducing their exposure to dangerous chemicals and toxins,⁸⁶ the EPA and the administration are instead dismantling core environmental protections. These safeguards—meant to limit toxic pollution from cars and trucks, gas and coal power plants, oil and gas refineries, petrochemical and chemical manufacturers, and other industries—are under attack.⁸⁷ Under Administrator Zeldin, the EPA has installed chemical and oil industry insiders into key leadership positions⁸⁸ responsible for regulating pesticides and industrial chemicals and enforcing pollution limits.⁸⁹ These actions, which have led MAHA advocates to call for Zeldin’s removal,⁹⁰ will increase pollution and endanger the health of kids, families, and communities in myriad ways.

Working to weaken or drop pollution limits

Every child deserves to grow up breathing clean air, drinking safe water, and eating food that is free of toxins, chemicals, and other harmful pollutants. Most parents understand pollution as a threat to their children’s health,⁹¹ and most Americans are worried about air and water pollution.⁹² In addition, a strong majority of Americans—82 percent—want corporate polluters to be held accountable for pumping chemicals and other pollutants into the air and water.⁹³

Although President Trump vowed during his campaign to secure the “cleanest air and water on the planet” for Americans,⁹⁴ he also promised oil executives that he would roll back dozens of pollution reduction policies in exchange for generous contributions to his reelection bid.⁹⁵ The oil and gas industry spent a staggering $219 million to influence the 2024 election, including more than $75 million going to Trump’s presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee, and affiliated committees.⁹⁶ Since President Trump’s reelection, The New York Times has reported that “about two dozen companies with interests in oil, gas and coal donated at least $41 million” to support his inaugural committee, super PAC MAGA Inc., and other special projects.⁹⁷ In March 2025, the Trump administration followed through on its pledge to oil industry leaders by unveiling plans to repeal dozens of environmental safeguards, including limits on soot, air toxics such as mercury, and other harmful pollution from cars, trucks, power plants, the oil and gas industry, chemical and petrochemical facilities, and other industrial sources.⁹⁸ According to an Environmental Protection Network analysis of EPA data, erasing just 12 of the 31 environmental protections that the Trump administration plans to roll back would cost Americans $6 for every $1 in cost reduction for corporate polluters.⁹⁹ The EPA’s estimated costs to Americans are conservative and include higher hospital and health care bills as well as lost income from less healthy and shorter lives.

Since then, the EPA has formally proposed repealing the current mercury and air toxics standards for power plants and reverting to a far weaker 2012 standard.¹⁰⁰ In addition, the agency has proposed reversing the carbon pollution limits for power plants,¹⁰¹ which, if left in place, would reduce kids’ and communities’ exposure to harmful mercury, soot, ozone, and other pollutants.¹⁰² Reportedly at the oil and gas industry’s request,¹⁰³ the EPA has also extended by 18 months its deadline to comply with the agency’s 2024 rule to reduce methane—a potent planet-warming pollutant—from oil and gas leaks, venting, and flaring. The same rule would reduce other toxic air emissions that cause asthma and other health problems for children and adults.¹⁰⁴ The Trump administration also released a proposed rule to reverse the EPA’s risk assessment process, which informs standards that reduce kids’ and families’ exposure to dangerous chemicals,¹⁰⁵ including cancer-causing asbestos and formaldehyde, among many others covered by the Toxic Substances Control Act.¹⁰⁶ In addition, former chemical industry insiders now hold top leadership positions at the EPA and have already granted industry lobbyists their long-standing wish to weaken the agency’s assessment of cancer risks tied to chemicals, nearly doubling the amount of formaldehyde considered safe to breathe.¹⁰⁷

In November, the Trump administration sided with corporate polluters and 25 states in a lawsuit challenging science-based soot pollution standards designed to protect children, families, workers, and communities from serious health harms, including early death.¹⁰⁸ In a court filing, the EPA urged the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit “to vacate the Rule” before February 7, 2026.¹⁰⁹ Corporate polluters and states seeking to block the soot rule argue that it will raise their costs, but the EPA estimates that every $1 spent complying with the standards could deliver “as much as $77 in human health benefits.”¹¹⁰ If left in place, the standards would save lives, “preventing up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays, yielding up to $46 billion in net health benefits in 2032.”¹¹¹ In December 2025, the EPA issued a rule to delay stronger wastewater treatment standards for coal-fired power plants by five years, allowing these plants to discharge more toxic chemicals and heavy metals into drinking water sources that serve more than 30 million Americans.¹¹²

In January 2026, The New York Times reported that it reviewed internal EPA emails and documents that reveal the agency plans to stop estimating the health benefits of curbing two deadly and widespread air pollutants—fine particulate matter, or soot, and ozone—when regulating coal and gas power plants, oil refineries, and other industrial polluters.¹¹³ Canceling these health benefits assessments, despite the EPA’s mission to protect public health, will make it easier to repeal soot and ozone pollution limits.¹¹⁴

Giving polluters a free pass to emit toxic air pollution

As the Trump administration systematically claws back science-based environmental safeguards that reduce toxins and chemicals in our air and water, it has also enabled polluters to cut corners, prioritizing industry profits over Americans’ health:

• In March 2025, the administration gave 68 gas- and coal-fired power plants essentially two-year free passes from meeting the EPA’s updated mercury and air toxics standards.¹¹⁵ This compliance extension allowed these facilities to emit more pollution that causes brain and nervous system damage, asthma attacks, cancer, and other serious harms to children’s health.¹¹⁶ Community and environmental groups are suing the administration, alleging that the power plants were unlawfully exempted from the standards.¹¹⁷
• In July 2025, President Trump granted more than 100 chemical plants and refineries, facilities that sterilize medical equipment, and other industrial polluters two-year extensions to meet air toxics standards,¹¹⁸ giving them more time to continue releasing dangerous amounts of pollution that endanger kids’ health. Community, health, and environmental groups sued the administration for allegedly unlawfully exempting “50 of the country’s most toxic chemical manufacturing plants from protections that guard people against dangerous cancer-causing air pollutants.”¹¹⁹
• In October 2025, the president exempted two copper smelters—including the Freeport-McMoRan smelter in Arizona¹²⁰—from the deadline to curb harmful lead, arsenic, mercury, benzene, and other pollutants, delaying it by two years and, once again, putting the health of children and families living nearby at risk.¹²¹

Each and every one of the more than 170 power plants, chemical and petrochemical manufacturers, and other industrial facilities receiving Trump administration exemptions from toxic air pollution limits emits pollution that endangers the health of children, families, and communities. According to an Environmental Defense Fund analysis, 565,744 kids under age 18—including 145,740 children under 5—live within 3 miles of corporate polluters granted two-year exemptions from toxic air pollution limits.¹²² The six states with the most children living within 3 miles of a facility with a Trump “free pass to pollute” are California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Utah.¹²³

As the Trump administration continues to grant exemptions to corporate polluters, many more children could be exposed to toxic pollution. Roughly 2.19 million children under age 18, including 569,231 children under 5,¹²⁴ live within 3 miles of the more than 500 industrial facilities that have been invited to apply for exemptions from toxic air pollution limits under the Trump administration.¹²⁵ (see Table 2) In addition to giving polluters exemptions from toxic air pollution limits, the EPA under Zeldin seems to be dragging its heels on enforcing environmental protections. Since the second Trump administration took office on January 20, 2025, the agency has filed less than a third of the cases filed by the Biden administration during the same time period in 2024 to hold polluters accountable for breaking the law, according to Earthjustice.¹²⁶

Ditching limits on forever chemicals

On just its second day in office, the Trump administration withdrew a proposed rule designed to limit chemical manufacturer releases of PFAS in wastewater, canceling a crucial effort to protect the health of kids and families.¹²⁷ PFAS are derived from fossil fuels and produced and used by petrochemical and chemical manufacturers.¹²⁸

In April 2025, the Trump administration pledged to reduce dangerous PFAS in Americans’ drinking water.¹²⁹ Less than a month later, the EPA announced it would drop its first-ever nationwide limits on four PFAS types in drinking water and delay the deadline for water utilities to filter out two other types of PFAS by two years.¹³⁰ In addition, the EPA canceled more than $15 million in funding for forever chemicals research and is proposing to loosen PFAS reporting rules for some companies that make PFAS or PFAS-containing products and exempt all importers of PFAS products from these requirements—reducing parents’ and communities’ awareness of potential PFAS exposure, despite a congressional mandate for comprehensive reporting requirements.¹³¹ During the government shutdown in early November, the Trump administration approved its first “forever chemical” pesticide for golf courses, lawns, cotton, soybeans, and lettuce¹³² and proposed approving four additional PFAS pesticides that would put the health of kids and families at risk.¹³³

In another move that threatened to further endanger kids and communities, the House Appropriations Committee passed the fiscal year 2026 House Interior and Environment appropriations bill, which would create broad product liability protections for pesticide and PFAS manufacturers by shielding them from facing failure-to-warn lawsuits by not disclosing their products’ health risks.¹³⁴ According to more than 240 MAHA movement leaders, this provision caves to the pesticide lobby at the expense of protecting children and families from toxic chemicals,¹³⁵ even though a 2024 Accountable Iowa poll showed that 87 percent of registered Republican respondents opposed giving chemical companies immunity from lawsuits.¹³⁶ After strong pushback from the MAHA movement and some lawmakers, the provision was ultimately dropped from the House 2026 funding bill, which the full House passed in early January 2026.¹³⁷

Gutting efforts to reduce and monitor pollution

To protect the health of kids and families, the public and policymakers must have clear information on the amount of industrial toxins and chemicals in the air that children and communities breathe, the water they drink, the food they eat, and the products they use. Access to this critical information is the first step toward holding corporate polluters accountable and protecting people’s health, lives, and futures.¹⁴⁵ But evidence reveals that when companies are asked to estimate their pollution, they substantially lowball those estimates relative to actual pollution amounts.¹⁴⁶ In addition, a recent report by the EPA’s inspector general found that industrial polluters increase emissions when they know that the EPA’s air monitors are off.¹⁴⁷ The report warned: “Without data that are representative of the actual air quality, people may be exposed to harmful and hidden levels of air pollution, leading to serious health consequences.”¹⁴⁸

Despite these findings, the Trump administration pledged to roll back toxic air pollution rules that require chemical manufacturers, iron and steel companies, and other industrial facilities to install “fenceline” pollution monitors so communities would know when toxic air pollution spikes above EPA limits and threatens children’s health.¹⁴⁹ In July 2025, the Trump administration finalized a rule dropping the EPA’s 2024 proposal to strengthen accountability and reporting requirements for power plants and other industrial facilities that make facility changes.¹⁵⁰ Abandoning this nonattainment new source review (NNSR) proposal will allow corporate polluters to continue modifying their facilities without disclosing the pollution impacts,¹⁵¹ potentially leading to higher amounts of pollution that harms children’s health while keeping families in the dark about the risks.

In September 2025, the EPA released a proposal to end its 15-year-old Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP).¹⁵² If finalized, the proposal would abandon requirements to report planet warming emissions for more than 8,000 large industrial polluters, including all fuel and industrial gas suppliers. In November, 30 House Democrats sent a letter to the EPA calling the proposed GHGRP rollback “a direct attack on America’s public health” that “would set our country back decades and expose American families to the harmful environmental, health, and economic impacts of climate change.”¹⁵³ The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition and Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) also sent letters opposing the administration’s plan to end the program.¹⁵⁴

Meanwhile, the administration canceled funding for nationwide monitoring efforts to reduce pollution that harms the health of children and families,¹⁵⁵ including science- and data-driven clean air and water projects.¹⁵⁶ In April 2025, the EPA acknowledged that it was canceling nearly 800 grants designed to advance environmental justice and protect the health of kids and communities by improving air and water quality in America’s most polluted areas.¹⁵⁷ Months later, in June, a federal judge found the EPA had unlawfully terminated $600 million in environmental justice grants.¹⁵⁸ A coalition of community groups, Tribes, and local governments sued the Trump administration for allegedly illegally terminating grants that protect public health.¹⁵⁹ In August, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, pointing to U.S. Supreme Court decisions in previous cases indicating that grant terminations must be heard by the Court of Federal Claims.¹⁶⁰

Canceling the fight against the climate crisis

Despite strong public support for climate action,¹⁶¹ the Trump administration has proposed to overturn the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding,¹⁶² a bedrock science- and evidenced-based conclusion that climate pollution—primarily from burning fossil fuels—threatens the health and well-being of current and future generations.¹⁶³ The endangerment finding is the legal foundation for federal climate standards that safeguard families and communities by cutting heat-trapping emissions and other harmful pollution from vehicles, power plants, and other sources.¹⁶⁴ Overturning this finding would elevate the risk of more frequent and dangerous extreme weather,¹⁶⁵ such as more intense heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other climate disasters that harm children and communities.¹⁶⁶

The Trump administration has claimed that the current clean car and clean trucks rules—both of which rely on the endangerment finding as their legal basis—are too costly.¹⁶⁷ However, according to an Environmental Protection Network analysis, the EPA’s data show that these rules together will provide nearly $137 billion in annual public health and other benefits to Americans, more than four times greater than the annual $30 billion in auto- and truck-maker compliance costs.¹⁶⁸ Similarly, the EPA’s carbon standard for power plants, which is also tied to the endangerment finding, provides more than $20 billion in annual public health and climate benefits—more than 20 times greater than the less than $1 billion in annual compliance costs.¹⁶⁹

In a lawsuit filed in August 2025, environmental advocates alleged the Trump administration violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by “secretly” commissioning the report it used to justify its actions to rescind the endangerment finding.¹⁷⁰ The report was written by a handful of scientists known for contradicting the overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus that greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels cause climate change. In September, EPA internal documents obtained by Politico’s E&E News revealed that the agency planned to move ahead with overturning the finding and the climate rules for cars and trucks before properly considering public comments or developing a legally required regulatory impact analysis.¹⁷¹

Meanwhile, the EPA has begun removing or significantly altering references to climate change on its website to downplay the threats to children and community health as well as climate change’s causes, including pollution from burning oil, gas, and other fossil fuels.¹⁷²

Shattering the EPA’s ability to protect Americans’ health

In 1970, President Richard Nixon created the EPA to protect public health and the environment by setting and enforcing national standards for air and water quality and reducing pollution from industry, motor vehicles, and other sources.¹⁷³ In November 2024, an Environmental Protection Network post-election poll revealed strong public support for the EPA to hold corporate polluters accountable to protect the health of children, families, and communities, with 76 percent of Trump voters and 86 percent of all voters opposing efforts to weaken the agency.¹⁷⁴ Despite this support, EPA Administrator Zeldin pledged in February 2024 to slash the agency’s budget by 65 percent.¹⁷⁵ According to former EPA heads under both Republican and Democratic administrations, “such cuts would render the agency incapable of protecting Americans from grave threats in our air, water and land.”¹⁷⁶

As it pushes to meet its pledge, the Trump administration has eliminated or proposed to shutter agency programs that protect children from toxins and chemicals, including those that use scientific research to deepen our understanding of environmental threats, improve air quality, and advance environmental justice and climate protection.¹⁷⁷ In September 2025, even before Congress had approved the administration’s recommended staffing cuts, the Trump administration was on track to slash 1 in 3 EPA staff by the end of the year,¹⁷⁸ leaving the agency without the personnel or in-house expertise needed to keep harmful toxins, chemicals, and other pollutants out of the air kids breathe and the water they drink.

More than 40 years ago, the EPA faced a similar attack as the Reagan administration pursued staffing and budget cuts that were substantially smaller than those sought by the Trump administration. At that time, agency leaders stalled the clean-up of toxic sites and told corporate polluters that they would ignore pollution limit violations,¹⁷⁹ threatening the health and safety of kids and communities. Responding to strong congressional and public pushback against the cuts, President Reagan spent six years rebuilding the EPA’s staff and budget to hold polluters accountable.¹⁸⁰ As history shows, by putting the EPA’s staff and budget on the chopping block, the Trump administration is shattering the agency’s ability to protect the health of kids and communities while delivering a gut punch to its own MAHA agenda, all to make it easier for corporate polluters to cut corners and emit more toxins and chemicals in order to boost their profits.

Clean energy provides better health outcomes for American children. The American Lung Association found that transitioning the nation to zero-emissions electricity and vehicles by 2050 could prevent up to 2.8 million childhood asthma attacks, 508 infant deaths, 4.5 million respiratory symptoms, and 147,000 bronchitis cases in children nationwide.¹⁸¹

The Trump administration’s efforts to weaken environmental safeguards and cut the nation’s clean energy supply and clean transportation will increase air pollution, all to boost fossil fuel industry profits.¹⁸² With the passage of President Trump’s OBBBA, congressional Republicans gutted federal incentives for U.S. clean energy projects and innovation, wiping out an estimated 59 percent of clean energy capacity that could have been added to the grid over the next decade.¹⁸³ In addition, the Trump administration canceled nearly $8 billion in investments across 223 projects in 16 states for clean energy, battery plants, power-line construction, and more.¹⁸⁴ These are the very types of projects and programs critical to meeting the nation’s ever-increasing energy demand.¹⁸⁵ Demand is rising from sectors such as data centers and artificial intelligence (AI), which are expected to grow to account for up to 12 percent of U.S. energy demand by 2028.¹⁸⁶ This will put a massive strain on both the U.S. grid and household electricity bills.¹⁸⁷ Moreover, Trump used emergency presidential powers in December 2025 to pause five wind energy projects in favor of “the dirtiest fossil fuel,” coal, by forcing coal power plants in Indiana and Colorado to continue operating past their planned retirement dates.¹⁸⁸

These moves will increase the emission of health-harming neurotoxins and planet-warming carbon while driving up ratepayers’ costs by millions of dollars.¹⁸⁹ Clean energy projects are also key to strengthening the electricity grids’ resilience against blackouts¹⁹⁰ and ensuring children and families can live and breathe in pollution-free communities.¹⁹¹ By slowing down the transition to clean energy and manufacturing, the OBBBA is expected to increase pollution by 160 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in just five years and expose families and children to other hazardous pollutants that will cause hundreds of avoidable, early deaths every year through 2035.¹⁹²

Compounding the health harms of the Trump administration’s actions to roll back lifesaving emission standards for cars and trucks, as described above, is its cancellation of incentives and grants for clean transportation. The OBBBA dismantled pollution-reducing transportation programs, including for electric school buses, heavy-duty vehicles, and clean ports,¹⁹³ even though the United States could avoid nearly 2.8 million cases of childhood asthma and more than 500 infant deaths with the help of zero-emissions transportation and technologies.¹⁹⁴ By slowing the nation’s transition to pollution-free power and vehicles, the Trump administration will increase American families’ health care costs¹⁹⁵ and endanger children’s health.

Additionally, the OBBBA eliminated civil penalties under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard,¹⁹⁶ thereby abandoning progress in reducing child-harming traffic pollutants.¹⁹⁷ The CAFE statute sets fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, reduces reliance on foreign fossil fuels,¹⁹⁸ and cuts vehicle pollution that can increase children’s risk of asthma and respiratory infections.¹⁹⁹ With no civil penalties under this statute, automakers have very little incentive to reduce emissions and produce more efficient vehicles.²⁰⁰ In December 2025, the Trump administration announced a proposal to roll back the latest CAFE standards,²⁰¹ which, if kept in place, would prevent more than 710 million metric tons of climate pollution from getting into the air that children breathe, avoid the use of nearly 70 billion gallons of gasoline, and save Americans more than $23 billion in fuel costs by 2050.²⁰²

Although RFK Jr. has championed a “Make America Healthy Again” agenda with a purported strong emphasis on child health, the Trump administration has simultaneously gutted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It has removed thousands of researchers, public health specialists, safety inspectors, and others,²⁰³ just as it has destabilized the EPA. This jeopardizes the federal government’s ability to protect health.

The administration has decimated research, prevention, health care, public health, and child welfare programs that are critical to children’s health and well-being,²⁰⁴ leading former surgeons general to warn that these actions endanger kids and the health of the nation.²⁰⁵ Barriers created by the Trump administration have made it harder for families to protect and promote their children’s health. Programs affected include school-based mental health and nutrition programs, efforts to prevent infectious diseases such as measles and whooping cough, and programs to address chronic diseases such as asthma and cancer.²⁰⁶ Support for programs that promote healthy pregnancies and births have also been weakened.²⁰⁷ At the same time, the administration has cast doubt on and rolled back proven health interventions, such as routine childhood vaccines and water fluoridation. It has undercut effective strategies to prevent chronic diseases and threatened early intervention services by eliminating funding for University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service (UCEDD),²⁰⁸ which help families detect and address children’s special developmental needs. The threat to health, education, and well-being is even greater for youth who are LGBTQI+, disabled, Black, Hispanic, or Native American,²⁰⁹ as health disparities already exist at higher levels for these populations.²¹⁰

Among the administration’s most devastating cuts include those that target programs that address the health harms of pollution, such as lifesaving asthma and cancer research and disease prevention programs,²¹¹ leaving children more vulnerable to preventable illnesses and deaths. Canceled grants include several research projects on reducing the health risks of wildfire smoke near schools and protecting children in rural areas who are at greater risk of illness associated with exposure to pesticides and pollution.²¹²

Meanwhile, millions of dollars for autism research were eliminated, despite RFK Jr.’s pledge to identify the causes of autism.²¹³ ProPublica discovered that more than $40 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants for dozens of autism-related research projects were canceled, with only a few reinstated.²¹⁴ For example, the Trump administration eliminated the division at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which spent more than 20 years studying links between exposure to workplace chemicals and autism in children. The administration also dismantled the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which funded research on the environmental factors contributing to autism.²¹⁵ According to an Autism Science Foundation survey of researchers, the total loss of autism research funding could be tens of millions more than ProPublica’s $40 million estimate.²¹⁶ A coalition of autism researchers criticized Secretary Kennedy for ignoring previous autism research and failing to provide transparency about his plans to fund future studies.

Making matters worse, the Trump administration shuttered the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), which tracks progress on improving the health of women and infants at high risk for health problems.²¹⁷ It also terminated the advisory committee overseeing newborn screening,²¹⁸ which enables early interventions to prevent developmental delays, illnesses, disabilities, and death, including those linked to environmental exposures.

The Trump administration plans even deeper cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) programs that protect kids and families from pollution and toxins linked to chronic diseases, respiratory diseases, and autism.²¹⁹ The proposed FY 26 HHS budget cuts CDC funding by 54 percent, including eliminating the entire chronic disease center and cutting environmental health programs by 43 percent from FY 2024 levels,²²⁰ putting the health and lives of children and adults at risk. Federal government cuts to hundreds of grants and programs will widen health disparities for Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, low-income, rural, and LGBTQ+ kids.²²¹

Cuts to health insurance harm children

The OBBBA cuts $1 trillion from the Medicaid program²²² at the expense of children and families.²²³ According to an analysis of national data from 2015 to 2019, about 3 in 4 children had coverage through Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or subsidized Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces or experienced a period of being uninsured at some time before the age of 18.²²⁴ Medicaid also covered approximately 40 percent of all births in the United States in 2024 and was a significant funding source for hospitals,²²⁵ particularly in rural America.²²⁶

OBBBA health care cuts will harm children even if they are not covered by the Medicaid or CHIP programs.²²⁷ According to a Children’s Hospital Association survey,²²⁸ a provision of the OBBBA that caps state supplemental Medicaid payments to hospitals, which help expand access to health care, would cut approximately 38 percent of children’s hospitals’ total Medicaid revenue and 13 percent of their total operating revenue.²²⁹ As pediatric health systems cut staff and services and potentially close, children—regardless of their insurance status—will have less access to health care. These cuts will force states to make difficult budget choices and will be especially damaging for children living in poverty, children with special health care needs who rely on long-term services and supports,²³⁰ and children in suburban and rural areas.²³¹ OBBBA cuts are already prompting some states to pare back Medicaid benefits, including behavior analysis therapy, which is a recommended treatment for autism.²³²

Children’s health and well-being improve when parents have health insurance.²³³ Yet the OBBBA’s new Medicaid work requirements are expected to result in nearly 7 million people losing coverage by 2034 and more than 21,600 avoidable deaths nationally each year.²³⁴ In addition, if Congress fails to restore the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits—which expired at the end of 2025 and were at the heart of the longest federal government shutdown in history²³⁵—many low- and middle-income households will face annual premiums that have more than doubled for 2026, per KFF analyses.²³⁶ These higher costs are expected to result in about 4 million people becoming uninsured, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, putting the health of families and children at risk.²³⁷

President Trump ran on a Make America Healthy Again agenda centered on protecting the health of America’s children. Instead of delivering on that promise, the EPA under Lee Zeldin and the Trump administration are advancing policies that remove environmental protections that limit emissions of harmful chemicals and toxins. These actions benefit the oil and gas industry, petrochemical and chemical manufacturers, gas and coal power plants, and other polluters. As a result, more children will be exposed to pollution, increasing their risk of asthma, autism, ADHD, cancer, endocrine disruption, anxiety, depression, and other health issues—all to boost the profits of corporate polluters. Worse yet for families and communities coping with the long-term consequences of these polluter-first policies, the Trump administration is simultaneously gutting the health care, research, and public health services that protect child health and well-being in order to cut taxes for the wealthy.

Americans want and deserve a government that holds polluters accountable and works for everyone,²³⁸ not just industry executives and the superrich. The Trump administration has rigged the system in favor of the ultrawealthy and corporate polluters, undermining Americans’ right to live in a healthy environment and threatening children’s futures. An administration committed to protecting children, families, and communities from toxins and chemicals and to lowering health care and energy costs should follow the lead of states and communities advancing real solutions to improve Americans’ health.²³⁹ These include strengthening pollution limits,²⁴⁰ monitoring, and enforcement; holding corporate polluters accountable; and levying significant fines on polluters who break the law and endanger Americans’ health.

Federal leaders can also protect the health of families and communities by expanding access to clean renewable energy, electric vehicles²⁴¹ and by requiring corporate polluters to pay for the climate damage and health harms they cause.²⁴² In addition, they should prevent the permitting or expansion of industrial polluters in communities already bombarded by dangerous levels of pollution to protect kids and communities from toxic pollution.²⁴³ It is crucial to create incentives for home energy efficiency improvements to lower energy bills so families can keep their power on, while also supporting clean energy storage to replace fossil-fueled power plants that run only during peak demand.²⁴⁴

Immediate action on these priorities—along with strong and stable support for health research, health care services, and public health programs—is critical to protect children’s health and well-being as well as the right of all Americans to breathe clean air, drink safe water, and live in healthy communities.

The authors would like to thank Trevor Higgins, Topher Spiro, Shannon Baker-Branstetter, Hailey Gibbs, Mariam Rashid, Jessica Ordonez-Lancet, Lucero Marquez, Natasha Murphy, Leo Banks, Mark Haggerty, Jamie Friedman, Angelo Villagomez, Kate Petosa, Carl Chancellor, Chester Hawkins, Meghan K. Miller, Steve Bonitatibus, Anh Nguyen, and Audrey Juarez from the Center for American Progress. The authors would also like to thank Grace Hauser, Ellen Robo, and Surbhi Sarang from the Environmental Defense Fund; Jeremy Symons from the Environmental Protection Network; Betsy Southerland, former director of the Office of Science and Technology in the EPA’s Office of Water; and Elio McCabe from the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network.