April 22, 2026, Gardiner, ME — Scientists and public health experts gathered on Wednesday, Earth Day, on the banks of the Kennebec River at Gardiner’s Waterfront Park to draw attention to the health and economic costs to Maine people as a result of dramatic cuts and rollbacks by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Speakers touted the benefits that Maine has seen since passage of such bedrock environmental laws as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, along with more recent investments in Maine’s clean energy economy and programs that help communities become more resilient to the effects of climate change. They also shared examples of how weakening these critical environmental safeguards creates a ripple effect across communities, resulting in immediate and long-term damage to public health and the economy.
“We have moved past the era of ‘predicting’ climate change; we are now living through it, as record-breaking extremes reshape our coastlines, our economy, and our very health,” said Dr. Beverly Johnson, a biogeochemist and professor of earth and climate sciences at Bates College. “By reversing the Endangerment Finding, the EPA is ignoring the physical reality of the impacts of greenhouse gases on people and the planet. To stabilize and protect the Maine we know, we must continue to reduce our reliance on the fossil fuels that create carbon emissions and drive this volatility.”
“In 2023, Gardiner suffered two major floods, impacting family homes and businesses with days-long power outages, costly damage to property and infrastructure, and lost access to the local grocery store—and the pharmacy inside—for 100 days,” said Patricia Hart, Mayor of Gardiner. “Our community showed up, but we can’t solve this alone. We need federal policies that protect the environment and prepare communities for the reality we’re living in—policies that defend clean water, safeguard wetlands and floodplains, reduce pollution that fuels more extreme weather, and invest in infrastructure that can handle what’s coming. When those protections are weakened, communities like ours pay the price first.”
“The cost of treating thousands of new asthma cases, cardiac incidents, and heat-related admissions will fall on Maine residents and our hospitals,” said Dr. Tony Owens, who has spent 40 years practicing emergency medicine in Maine. “These rollbacks aren’t about saving money; they are shifting the burden from corporate polluters to working families and an already underfunded healthcare system.”
“Over the past decade, our research and monitoring data have shown improvements in environmental mercury loads across Maine’s lakes. We are seeing the benefits of nationwide pollution standards, with lower mercury concentrations in the fish that we eat and iconic birds such as Common Loons and Bald Eagles,” said Dr. David Evers, Executive Director and Chief Scientists at the Biodiversity Research Institute. “Those downward encouraging trendlines can continue, but only if we continue to reduce mercury emissions and give nature a chance to fully recover.”
“The EPA’s latest decisions will contribute to more extreme weather events and worsened air quality, harming people’s health and putting greater economic burdens on Maine families,” said Matt Wellington, Associate Director of the Maine Public Health Association.
“The actions taken over the last year will put more money into the pockets of corporate polluters, developers, and fossil fuel companies,” said Anya Fetcher, Federal Policy Advocate for the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “In return, Mainers will suffer increased health risks and premature deaths, rapid loss of biodiversity, billions of dollars in storm damage to communities and infrastructure and growing economic burdens.”
One year ago, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency’s intention to carry out the largest collection of deregulatory actions in U.S. history, boasting about plans to reconsider 31 regulations and cut the EPA budget by 65%. Since that time, the EPA has proposed and/or finalized rules to reverse, weaken, repeal, limit, and eliminate hundreds of environmental and public health protections. The policies being rolled back are based in science and have been carefully designed to deliver significant public health, economic, environmental, and climate benefits nationwide.
The list of rollbacks includes (but is not limited to):
- Reversal of the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, EPA’s determination that greenhouse gases (GHG), such as carbon dioxide and methane, endanger public health and welfare. The action, finalized on February 11, removes the scientific and legal basis for federal regulation of GHGs under the Clean Air Act.
- Repealing the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which limit toxic mercury, lead, and other hazardous air pollution from coal-fired power plants. Prevailing winds carry this pollution from out-of-state coal plants to Maine, where it collects in our water and soil.
- Repeal of motor vehicle emissions standards, compliance programs, and reporting requirements for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles.
- Removing limits on GHG emissions for new and existing power plants.
- Redefining Waters of the United States (WOTUS), narrowing the scope of the Clean Water Act by restricting which water bodies can be protected under the law. The change will remove federal protections from 97% of non-tidal wetlands in Maine.
- Delayed compliance deadlines for public water systems to meet drinking water limits for PFAS and for oil and gas companies to limit methane emissions.
- Easing state implementation plan requirements to address cross-state air pollution and decrease regional haze pollutants, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds.
- Ignoring the benefits to human health and welfare when setting new air pollution standards. Instead, the EPA will focus solely on the economic cost to industry, making it easier to repeal air quality protections.
