New Act Mandates EPA to Target 100 Worst-Hit Communities, Implement Pollution Fixes Within Two Years

The “Protection from Cumulative Emissions and Underenforcement of Environmental Law Act of 2025” is a mouthful, but its goal is simple: force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop treating pollution problems one-by-one and start tackling the combined, real-world health risks hitting the same neighborhoods. This bill sets hard deadlines for the EPA to overhaul how it assesses environmental risks and mandates targeted cleanup efforts in communities that have been historically overlooked.

The New Math of Risk: Counting Every Stressor

Right now, environmental regulators often look at one pollutant at a time—say, just the lead in the water or just the smog in the air. This Act says that’s not good enough because people in high-risk areas are dealing with all of it, plus the effects of climate change, all at once. Section 2 requires the EPA Administrator to propose a new protocol for calculating these cumulative environmental stressors within 180 days. This new calculation must include everything from standard pollution exposure (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act violations, etc.) to climate change effects like extreme heat, wildfires, and floods. The EPA then has three years to actually start using this new, comprehensive risk assessment method. For anyone living near a refinery and dealing with constant flooding, this change means the government might finally acknowledge the full weight of the environmental burden they carry.

Targeted Cleanup: Finding the 100 Worst Spots

This is where the rubber meets the road. Section 3 mandates that the EPA, working with state and local partners, must identify at least 100 communities that are both designated as “Environmental Justice Communities” and have experienced significantly more environmental law violations over the past five years than the national average. The bill defines an Environmental Justice Community based on high percentages of low-income residents (less than 80% of area median income or 200% of the poverty line) or communities of color, ensuring the focus is on historically vulnerable areas.

Once those 100 communities are identified, the EPA has one year to figure out the root causes of the repeated violations—and they must talk directly with the residents while doing this analysis. Crucially, the bill requires the EPA to implement specific measures to bring the violation rate in those areas “significantly below the national average” within just two years of the law being enacted. This means the EPA can’t just study the problem; they must deliver concrete enforcement and remediation results in targeted neighborhoods. For the facilities and industries causing the violations in these 100 areas, this translates directly into mandated, targeted enforcement and necessary operational changes, which will require significant investment and compliance efforts.

What This Means for Everyday Life

If you live in one of these 100 targeted communities, the promise is clear: the federal government is coming in to fix systemic pollution problems on a tight timeline. For instance, if your neighborhood has high rates of asthma due to a nearby facility constantly violating air quality rules, this bill forces the EPA to implement a plan, like requiring new pollution controls or increasing fines, within two years to lower those violations. However, the bill gives the EPA Administrator broad authority—for example, in deciding what "other environmental factors" to include in the risk assessment, or in defining the exact metrics for "significantly below the national average." While this flexibility allows for comprehensive action, it also means the success of the bill depends heavily on how rigorously the agency chooses to define and enforce these new standards. State and local environmental agencies will also feel the heat, as they are required to partner with the EPA on these intense, quick-turnaround enforcement and reduction efforts.