
WASHINGTON—Earth Day 2025 is marked today in the U.S. with marches and teach-ins nationwide, many sponsored by the Sunrise Movement against the oligarchs and millionaires who activists say are poisoning the planet. They are calling out what they say are the pro-pollution policies of the Trump administration.
The theme of the marches is denunciation of what organizers say is an “assault on our climate.” The Sunrise movement posted a graphic showing Trump with a “see-no-evil” blindfold and flanked by billionaires, including Tesla czar Elon Musk and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.
“Donald Trump just took office, and once again he’s giving the richest people in the country even more money and even more power, while they jack up the rent and burn the planet. It’s time to take down the oligarchy,” Sunrise said, urging people to sign up for teach-ins.
And while Trump issued a proclamation about Earth Day, he couldn’t resist saying at the end that “Economic growth enhances environmental protection.
“We can and must protect our environment without harming America’s working families,” he piously proclaimed—while, unions and environmental advocates said, he’s doing the opposite. “My administration is reducing unnecessary burdens on American workers and American companies, while being mindful that our actions must also protect the environment.”
“Unnecessary burdens” are code words for “environmental regulations.”
Trump also praised “rigorous science,” to combine those goals, without mentioning that his own Environmental Protection Agency just fired most of its scientists as part of the Musk-Trump cuts of government workers and programs.
But if Trump oozed hypocrisy on April 22, the Government Employees, which represents all EPA workers, called him out on it the day before. Joyce Howell, vice president of AFGE Local 238 particularly noted Trump and his EPA chief, former Long Island GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, chose that eve of Earth Day to eliminate the agency’s Office of Environmental Justice.
That office, she explained, was created to ensure the low-income communities, many of them communities of color, most hurt by ecological disasters and pollution—think the “cancer alleys” south of New Orleans and from Houston to Galveston, Texas—got special attention for cleanups and anti-pollution controls.
“The Office of Environmental Justice was established to ensure no community is left behind, and no one is subjected to an unsafe environment simply because of their zip code,” said Howell. “Decimating our agency and Environmental Justice workforce goes against our oath to protect human health and to keep our planet healthy and habitable for future generations.
“This is not just a ‘reduction in force. This is a reduction in our ability to keep Americans safe. Many Americans who are impacted most by environmental dangers live in lower-income areas, where they face higher exposure to air pollution and environmental contaminants.
“Eliminating jobs that ensure these communities get the same access to clean air and clean drinking water afforded to others goes to show this administration has no interest in protecting the American people.
“We demand Zeldin stand by the oath he took and support the very people who are doing the work to keep Americans healthy and safe.”
The BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of green groups and unions, led by the Steelworkers, castigated Trump two weeks before Earth Day for an executive order saying his administration would move against states, notably California, with tougher environmental controls. Those controls “address climate change, environmental justice, carbon or greenhouse gas emissions, cap and trade or carbon tax initiatives, and more,” the alliance said.
“This latest action in the seemingly unending string of blatantly unconstitutional moves by the Trump administration is a direct attack on the will of voters nationwide,” said BlueGreen Executive Director Jason Walsh.
“Trump is trying to impose a one-size-fits-all energy policy designed with the sole intention of making the rich richer and everybody else sick and poor. Trump’s plan would eliminate local jobs, decimate the environment, and have devastating impacts on public health.”

Sunrise and other movements aren’t waiting for politicians to act. Indeed, one goal of the movement is to push officeholders, including may Democrats, into taking tough stands for the environment and against pro-pollution pols.
Protesters marched not just for Earth Day but against the congressional Republicans’ budget blue print, which would obliterate the pro-green programs of the prior Biden administration. Doing so would “roll back the very clean energy policies that have proven so transformational to unlocking the next generation of the United States’ economy,” the Union of Concerned Scientists said.
Earth Day activists noted Biden’s clean energy legislation created “280 clean energy projects across 44 states, generating $282 billion in investments and nearly 175,000 jobs.” Many are in Republican-led “red” states.
The Earth Day activists also demanded defense of workers and democracy, lower costs for communities, making polluters pay—meaning higher taxes on oil companies–and investing that revenue into clean energy.
As for Trump, his executive order earlier in the month put restoration of coal production atop his energy list. Environmentalists note coal, is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions that produce global warming.
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