Trump’s abandonment of greenhouse gas rules will add to Detroit pollution: Former EPA staffer

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The Trump administration announced Feb. 12 the elimination of greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks, a move experts say will lead to more emissions of other pollutants that harm public health.

The repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 endangerment finding, which found that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health, could be especially harmful for cities like Detroit, Joseph Goffman, former assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, told Planet Detroit.

“In a place like Detroit and places like Southern California, getting a handle on pollution from cars and trucks is what stands between the current air quality, which is still at unhealthy levels, and meeting the health-based standards for ozone, smog and soot,” he said.

With large industrial emitters and power plants reducing their emissions over the last 30 years, lowering vehicle emissions is essential to further improvements, Goffman said.

An EPA spokesperson said in a statement that its repeal of the endangerment finding impacts only greenhouse gas emissions, and doesn’t affect regulations on “traditional air pollutants.”

“All new vehicles must continue to meet stringent criteria-pollutant limits,” the statement said in part.

Goffman said a Biden-era requirement for particulate filters on automobiles remains in place, but the elimination of greenhouse gas standards mean there will be far more gas vehicles on the road, rather than electric vehicles that have no tailpipe emissions.

Gas-powered vehicles emit fine particulate matter, PM2.5, as well as volatile organic compounds, VOCs, and nitrogen oxides, NOX. VOCs and NOX are the primary drivers for ozone formation.

Rollback to increase ‘pernicious’ PM2.5 pollution, expert says

Environmental and policy experts say rolling back the endangerment finding will increase air pollution associated with a wide range of health problems and it comes at a time when the Trump administration is using emergency orders to keep Consumers Energy’s J.H Campbell coal plant on Michigan’s west side online.

Nationally, around 150 million people live in areas with extremely poor air quality, according to the American Lung Association’s 2025 “State of the Air”report. This report gave Detroit an F for air quality, and ranked Detroit in the top 25 cities for cities for daily PM2.5 pollution. Wayne County received an F for ozone pollution.  

Ozone pollution can cause respiratory problems and increase the frequency of asthma attacks, while PM2.5 is linked to cardiopulmonary problems and premature death.

“They’re particularly pernicious because they’re so small in size that they can not only enter the lungs but also enter the blood,” Goffman said of fine particles. “They’re really implicated in just an unimaginably large number of illnesses.”

Goffman told Planet Detroit he resigned from the EPA at noon Jan. 20, 2025 — the end of President Joe Biden’s term.

In 2024, an investigation by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General found Goffman “failed to assess whether specific parties or industries posed a potential financial conflict-of-interest prior to participation” in four instances.

Goffman counted on the conflicts screening process in his office to prevent conflicts of interest, he said.

“In rare instances where I recognized that I had committed a conflicts of interest violation, I self-reported the violation to Ethics Counsel and to the Office of the Inspector General,” he said.

“At no time in my career did I knowingly or deliberately violate my ethics obligations.”

Michiganders confront climate-driven health impacts, rising bills

Abby Clark, Midwest campaign manager for the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said Wayne County is already dealing with pollution from oil refining and other heavy industry, as well as pollution from DTE Energy’s Monroe coal power plant and Consumers’ J.H. Campbell facility.

The Campbell plant in West Olive emits PM2.5 that impacts public health in all of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and most of the northeastern United States, according to testimony submitted by the Environmental Law & and Policy Center to state regulators in 2021 to push for the closure of the Campbell plant.

Consumers Energy did not respond to a request for comment on the public health impact of the Campbell coal-fired power plant. 

The NRDC and several other health and environmental groups filed suit to challenge the Trump administration’s rollback of the endangerment finding, saying the EPA is legally obligated under the Clean Air Act to limit vehicle emissions that contribute to air pollution and could reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.

Gregory Keoleian, a professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, said increasing fossil fuel use for transportation will also lead to more oil refining in Detroit, further increasing emissions in vulnerable communities.

The Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks over the last year are overwhelming and show a lack of concern for vulnerable populations like children and older adults, Keoleian said.

“There’s a total lack of disregard for future generations and how climate change and other pollutants are really going to threaten their health and quality of life,” he said.

In a statement, Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, called the endangerment finding a “cornerstone of public health protection for more than 15 years,” saying its repeal would lead to more air pollution and help fuel climate disasters like wildfires and floods.

Climate-driven wildfires have heavily impacted Detroit in recent years, with the 2023 Canadian wildfires making cities like Columbus, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Detroit the worst in the nation for particulate matter pollution, according to Axios.

On a Wednesday press call organized by the Center for American Progress think tank, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) said repealing the endangerment finding will increase the cost of asthma care, as residents’ health care costs are already climbing.

“In my district in Michigan, 41,000 people are watching their health care costs skyrocket because we didn’t get the affordable tax credit extended,” she said, referring to the Affordable Care Act.

Senate Republicans voted against a three-year extension of ACA tax credits in December.

In a Feb. 12 statement, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said repealing the endangerment finding is a cost-saving measure because it added “trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans.”

In January, the EPA stopped considering how many deaths are prevented and how much money is saved in health care costs when considering PM2.5 and ozone reductions.

Clark, with the NRDC, said health care costs from air pollution are spread out over time, but tremendously expensive.

“You have to really cherry pick numbers to say that runaway pollution saves people money.”

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