Recommendations for Action

EPA is, first and foremost, a public health agency. The agency works at every level to address air pollution. People breathe easier every day because of the work of EPA’s staff, but they may not realize just how much these workers matter.

EPA staff are the reason the nation has access to air quality data in the first place, including through “State of the Air.” A team of environmental scientists, modelers and statisticians and other experts enable the Airnow.gov site to work, which allows people across the country to get air quality forecasts online. They work with state and local governments to share those forecasts with communities across the country. They review the health science and write and update guidance on what people should do to protect themselves when the air quality index hits yellow, orange, red, purple and maroon. They share resources with schools that help them keep students safe when air pollution reaches unhealthy levels.

EPA staff are vital to ensuring that unhealthy levels of air pollution are not just monitored but also cleaned up. This is done in part by writing strong, sound safeguards under the Clean Air Act. For example, EPA is required to regularly update the National Ambient Air Quality Standards – the national limits on ozone and particle pollution on which this report is based. The scientific staff keep abreast of what the scientific research shows about air pollution, come up with different policy options, lead the work of analyzing the benefits to health of each option, and gather public input. For other types of standards, like limits on specific pollutants from power plants and vehicles, EPA staff do complex technical analyses of what technologies are available to reduce pollution, how and where they’re being used, and what the impacts would be to health and to industry of pursuing different options.

Another part of ensuring pollution cleanup is making sure these strong safeguards are enforced. EPA staff do that too. They work with state and local governments to make sure new facilities are reviewed before they get built so that they don’t add to the burden of unhealthy air in a place that’s already too polluted. They test cars and trucks in labs to make sure they’re not emitting more pollutants than they’re supposed to. They inspect facilities to ensure their compliance with air quality standards to protect communities in the area. They bring cases against companies that violate the laws that protect public health.

EPA also gives grants and other funding to state and local governments, community organizations, businesses and more to help them monitor and reduce air pollution. Many of these grants are from programs to reduce emissions and invest in clean transportation and clean electricity under the Inflation Reduction Act. Many more are under longstanding programs that fund the everyday efforts that state and local governments make to ensure clean air. Without these funds, state and local governments would have a hard time running local air quality monitors, tracking where pollution is coming from and writing and implementing plans to reduce that pollution. For all of these funds, EPA staff work hand-in-hand with these partners to make sure the funding goes where it needs to go and supports the work that needs to be done.

EPA’s key principles are to follow the science, follow the law, and be transparent. Those principles have guided decades of progress toward cleaner air. But efforts to undercut them put the agency’s core mission at risk.

The bottom line is this: EPA staff, working in communities across country, are doing crucial work to keep your air clean. Staff cuts are already impacting people’s health across the country. Further cuts mean more dirty air.

In “State of the Air” 2024, we celebrated the fact that several lifesaving new air pollution safeguards were finalized by EPA, thanks to the hard work of agency staff and the health and environmental advocates who supported them. Now, that progress is at risk.

Executive orders issued in January 2025 and EPA announcements in March seek to overturn regulatory policies that reduce pollution from electricity generation and transportation. But a regulation cannot be overturned simply by an executive order or a press statement. That means that the clean air safeguards are still on the books, still the law of the land, and still need to be defended and protected, especially as new actions are announced to reconsider these lifesaving programs. They include:

• Updated national particle pollution standards. EPA strengthened the annual fine particulate matter pollution standards from 12 µg/m³ to 9 µg/m³. States have submitted to EPA their recommendations for which areas should be cleaned up. Now the agency is required to review those recommendations and conduct its own analyses to finalize the areas that need additional pollution control by February 6, 2026.
• Rules to clean up methane and other air pollutants from the oil and gas industry. EPA finalized rules to address leaks of methane from the oil and gas production process, like drilling operations. This is a crucial climate measure and will also reduce emissions of dangerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs). While Congress voted in February to overturn a separate methane prevention rule, these limits are still on the books.
• Stronger standards for future cars. EPA finalized a rule that will make future light- and medium-duty vehicles cleaner. The rule will help get more zero-emission vehicles on the road and make new gasoline-powered cars less polluting too.
• Stronger carbon pollution limits on future trucks and buses. EPA finalized a rule that will make sure future heavy-duty vehicles emit fewer greenhouse gases, including trucks and buses. A separate, 2023 rule also ensures future trucks and buses emit less nitrogen oxide emissions.
• Stronger limits on mercury and air toxics from power plants. EPA tightened limits on toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants and strengthened monitoring requirements to help ensure that cleanup happens quickly.
• Limits on carbon pollution from power plants. EPA set limits on carbon emissions from future gas-fired power plants, current coal-fired power plants and some current gas plants.

These rules are on the books. They were adopted by following the law, and EPA must uphold the rule of law now. The rules must stay in place and be implemented and enforced. Anything less means people will suffer health harms from dirty air that could have been prevented.

States and cities still have many tools in their toolbox to reduce emissions that harm people’s health, like cleaning up vehicles by adopting the Advanced Clean Cars II and Advanced Clean Trucks policies, investing in charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, and requiring more electricity to come from truly clean sources like wind, solar, geothermal and tidal. They can also adopt policies to reduce emissions from buildings, manufacturing facilities and freight activities. 

Cities, communities and individuals can also adopt a suite of “smart surfaces” solutions – things like cool roofs, porous pavement, more green space and solar panels that help reduce heat in their neighborhoods and protect health from the combined health harms of pollution and dangerously high temperatures.

Individuals can keep themselves safe and help their friends and families do the same – things like checking daily air pollution forecasts at airnow.gov, preparing for wildfires, floods and other disasters at lung.org/disaster, and reducing emissions from their vehicle or home energy use in their own lives.

Above all: you can also use the power of your personal voice. Even in a time when clean air protections are under threat, the fact remains: people nationwide want clean air. The need for clean air is universal, nonpartisan and knows no boundaries. And sharing a story is powerful – whether it’s a time when you had asthma symptoms on a smoggy day, your child spent days indoors because of wildfire smoke, or the concerns you have about how losses of staff and funding at EPA may impact the air you breathe. That’s true when you take your story to your elected officials, but it’s also true with family, friends, and other members of your community.