Joe Biden became president in 2021, which was not that long ago, but according to CBS’s Stephen Colbert, repealing Biden-era EPA regulations is a public health crisis of grave consequence. Colbert made the remarks on Thursday’s edition of The Late Show, where he also expressed his lack of interest in the financial cost of regulations.
Reaching for the alcohol, Colbert declared, “Trump also, and I want to be fair, is ruining everything. For instance, his EPA, his Environmental Protection Agency, announced plans to repeal dozens of the nation's most significant environmental regulations, including more than two dozen protections against air and water pollution. I mean, just even hearing that stresses me out. I need a drink, man. There you go. Oh, my god. That's water.”
Moving on, Colbert added, “The EPA is also going to overturn limits on soot from smokestacks and restrictions on emissions of mercury. Mercury poisoning is back, baby! Pretty soon your horoscope's gonna read, ‘This month, Mercury is in retrograde and also in your brain. Blaaaaaaggahhhaa.’"
Colbert’s source for this was a New York Times article that included a note that the soot and mercury regulation was a Biden rule, but Colbert made it seem like Trump was turning the clock back to the 1870s.
Nevertheless, Colbert rolled on, “The changes also include getting rid of something called the “good neighbor rule,” which requires states to address their own pollution when it's carried by winds into neighboring states. Getting rid of the good neighbor rule is really going to change those commercials.
In a State Farm parody, the narrator suggested the moves will kill people, “Like a good neighbor. [Coughing] My lungs! Get out! I'm dying! You lied to me, Jake! State Farm is there!”
Colbert followed up, “This new highway to a Mad Max hellscape was announced by EPA administrator and Humpty Dumpty after Ozempic, Lee Zeldin.”
The fact that Zeldin cares about how regulations may impact the economy was something Colbert simply could not understand, “Zeldin claims that getting rid of these regulations is in service of the agency's mission, which he said is to quote, ‘Lower the cost of buying a car and running a business.’ No it's not! The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect the environment, not to sell cheaper cars, that’s the mission— selling cheaper cars is the mission of Lee Zeldin's Used Auto World: Stop in today to buy, zel, or lee-se."
The whole reason why Trump and Zeldin are in charge is because liberals like Colbert downplayed the consequences their policies had on costs to everyday voters. Some things never change.
Here is a transcript for the March 13 show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
3/13/2025
11:43 PM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: Trump also, and I want to be fair, is ruining everything. For instance, his EPA, his Environmental Protection Agency, announced plans to repeal dozens of the nation's most significant environmental regulations, including more than two dozen protections against air and water pollution. I mean, just even hearing that stresses me out. I need a drink, man. There you go. Oh, my god. That's water.
The EPA is also going to overturn limits on soot from smokestacks and restrictions on emissions of mercury. Mercury poisoning is back, baby! Pretty soon your horoscope's gonna read, "This month, Mercury is in retrograde and also in your brain. Blaaaaaaggahhhaa." Blaaaaaaggahhhaa.
The changes also include getting rid of something called the “good neighbor rule,” which requires states to address their own pollution when it's carried by winds into neighboring states. Getting rid of the good neighbor rule is really going to change those commercials.
MAN: Like a good neighbor. [Coughing] My lungs! Get out! I'm dying! You lied to me, Jake! State Farm is there!
COLBERT: This new—we love Jake, we love Jake from State Farm. Blaaaaaaggahhhaa. This new highway to a Mad Max hellscape was announced by EPA administrator and Humpty Dumpty after Ozempic, Lee Zeldin.
Zeldin claims that getting rid of these regulations is in service of the agency's mission, which he said is to quote, "Lower the cost of buying a car and running a business." No it's not! The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect the environment, not to sell cheaper cars, that’s the mission— selling cheaper cars is the mission of Lee Zeldin's Used Auto World: Stop in today to buy, zel, or lee-se."
