The Clean Air Act is a safety net that protects people from pollution — like soot that damages lungs and hearts, smog-forming pollution that can turn babies into lifelong asthma patients, and planet-warming climate pollution from major industries that is fueling more smog, deadly heat waves, stronger storms and wildfires.

But Lee Zeldin, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has announced that he is prepared to take a broad swipe at this bedrock law — and at the ability of his own agency to protect people from these harms.

“When it comes to the environment, the second Trump administration is taking actions that will increase pollution and harm people in a manner that is even more extreme than the first,” said Peter Zalzal, distinguished counsel and associate vice president for clean air strategies at Environmental Defense Fund. “The administration is trying to take a bulldozer to decades of clean air progress.”