Advocates gathered Monday morning in Center City to rally behind the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which they say is being “gutted” under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Lee Zeldon, Trump’s appointee, has sought to roll back dozens of environmental regulations with the stated goal of lowering costs for individuals and business owners. Last week, he proposed repealing restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in order to “unleash” America’s energy sector.

“Unfortunately, we’ve watched over the last few months as the current administration continues to indiscriminately gut the agency,” said Alice Lu, policy analyst at the Clean Air Council. “Protecting people’s health and the environment shouldn’t be political. But sadly, in this day and age, it is.”

Clean Air Council, an environmental nonprofit, organized the news conference alongside other like-minded regional organizations, including PennFuture. Speakers urged Pennsylvanians to contact their Congressional representatives and speak out against attempts to weaken environmental rules or the agency’s authority.

“When the EPA was first envisioned, the air in many of our cities and industrial hubs here in Pennsylvania was thick with dangerous and often deadly particles, a smog emitted by corporations that reaped astronomical profits as they poisoned our neighbors and toxified our lands,” state Sen. Nikil Saval said during the event. “The dedicated workers at the EPA changed this.”

Liz Lankenau, the city’s director of sustainability, said air quality is a major contributing factor for asthma. Philadelphia’s childhood asthma rate is more than triple the national average; and, in 2020, Black and Hispanic youth had four times as many asthma-related hospitalizations as white children, she added.

“These disparities require urgent action, but Philadelphia cannot address them alone,” Lankenau told those assembled. “Simply put, weakening the EPA will make Philadelphia’s air, water and soil dirtier, and everyday Philadelphians will foot the bill.”

The rally was held at Love Park, about a block away from the headquarters for EPA’s Region 3, where hundreds of employees administer initiatives covering Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and West Virginia.

EPA workers have led demonstrations against the Department of Governmental Efficiency’s spending cuts and the direction of the agency, including a lunch-break march in late March.

Monday’s call to action also coincided with an increase in public protest against the Trump administration’s policies – particularly around immigration. Tens of thousands took to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for Saturday’s “No Kings” demonstration to express their dissatisfaction about a wide variety of issues.