EDITORIAL. Those who go to the polls on Tuesday are not only deciding the balance of power in Congress. It's about whether the United States will continue to systematically dismantle its own environmental laws – or whether there is a chance to reverse this course. The record of the past two years is devastating: The Trump administration has dismantled the scientific basis of American climate protection, slowed the expansion of renewable energies, and freed the fossil fuel industry from regulatory constraints. The midterms are the last opportunity to stop this trend.
The attack on science
On February 12, 2026, President Trump announced the repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) so-called "Endangerment Finding." This finding, issued in 2009 under Barack Obama, that six greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and the well-being of Americans, had been the legal basis for nearly all federal climate regulations of the past decade and a half. Without it, regulations concerning vehicle emissions, power plants, and methane leaks could effectively be overturned. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the repeal "the biggest deregulation move in the history of the United States." Trump himself spoke of eliminating a "disastrous Obama-era policy."
The consequences are predictable. California Governor Gavin Newsom warned that the repeal would "lead to more deadly wildfires, more heat-related deaths, more climate-related floods and droughts." Environmental organizations announced lawsuits. But the political will of the current administration is clear: science that threatens fossil fuel profits will not be tolerated.
Renewables as the enemy image
In parallel, the government has massively hampered the expansion of clean energy. According to swissinfo/EFE, more than $7,5 billion in subsidies for over 220 energy projects in 16 states have been cut – most of them in the renewable energy sector. Offshore wind projects on the East Coast have been suspended under the pretext of “national security,” including the partially completed Vineyard Wind 1 park off the coast of Massachusetts, which was intended to supply around half a million homes. Trump has described wind turbines as unsightly and bird-killing. Instead, he is pushing for “clean and beautiful coal” and has signed orders requiring the Department of Defense to obtain electricity from coal-fired power plants.
This policy comes at a price. A Hart Research poll commissioned by environmental organizations in October 2026 found that energy costs were among the most important election issues in contested congressional districts—and that voters held Republicans responsible. The opposition environmental organization EDF Action argues that candidates who supported Trump's agenda should be held accountable for rising electricity and fuel prices.
What an opposition could achieve
Expectations for a potential Democratic victory are subdued. As long as Trump remains in the White House, Congress cannot rejoin the Paris Agreement, and he will not sign his own climate legislation. However, a Democratic majority could leverage other mechanisms: investigative committees, budget amendments that block the worst deregulation, and personnel oversight of government agencies. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Sean Casten have already introduced the Environmental Health Restoration Act, which aims to reinstate pre-Trump environmental protection standards and require the EPA to operate based on science. Such legislation is unrealistic under Trump—but it illustrates the potential direction of the government.
Voters are divided, but not indifferent. A Yale poll from late 2025 found that 59 percent of registered voters preferred candidates who supported climate protection; 74 percent favored regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant—including 45 percent of conservative Republicans. A majority of 65 percent said climate change affected their cost of living. The issue is therefore not only a moral one, but also a very real economic one.
The election as a turning point
The midterm elections won't reverse Trump's environmental policies. But they can slow them down, scrutinize them, and delegitimize them. Anyone who thinks climate protection is an ideology that can be abolished by decree is mistaken: The laws of physics cannot be overridden by executive order. What can be changed is the political composition of Congress. On Tuesday, Americans will choose whether they want another two years of anti-science deregulation—or whether they want to usher in the beginning of the end of this era.
