U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced March 12, sweeping changes to 31 programs, including climate change reporting, pollution from power plants, and emissions standards for vehicles. The EPA also said that it will review water pollution limits for coal plants, air quality standards for small particles, and the mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by large emitters like oil and gas companies.

“Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” said Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator, on March 12. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S., and more.” 

NBC News reported Zeldin also said that the EPA would reconsider a 2009 legal decision that stated greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane are warming the Earth and that warming presents a threat to public health and welfare.

The agency’s announcements promise to start legal battles with environmental groups that will fight the rollbacks. The agency, which issued these announcements in numerous press releases, must initiate a rulemaking process that will take months, if not longer, to complete, NBC News said.

For the first three months of 2025, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed at least 301 measles cases in the United States, which rises above last year’s total of 285 measles cases. (CDC is aware of probable measles cases still being reported, and the case count is higher.) This marks the most measles infections reported nationwide in a single year since 2019, which saw the most cases in decades, CBS News reported.

More than 90% of the cases have been from a growing outbreak in Texas and neighboring New Mexico. On Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services provided updated numbers of its ongoing outbreak of measles predominately in West Texas, which has now expanded to 11 counties. The outbreak has spread to the northeast part of the state as the Paris-Lamar County Health District confirmed four cases in unvaccinated residents who had traveled to Gaines County. As of March 14, 259 cases have been identified in the Texas outbreak since late January with 34 patients requiring hospitalization. Texas also has confirmed cases in Rockwall, Travis, and Harris counties tied to international travel.

One unvaccinated school-aged child with no underlying conditions died on Feb. 26 in Texas, the first measles death in the U.S. since 2019, according to the CDC’s death certificate records. The most Texas cases are reported in Gaines County, where the outbreak was first identified. Cases have reached 174 in the county, which also had the third highest vaccine exemption rate in Texas last year, as CMM previously reported. Most cases are in children under the age of 18, and all but a couple cases are in the unvaccinated.

Additionally, on Friday, New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) reported the case count for measles has risen to 35. While most cases remain in Lea County, the outbreak spread to Eddy County, which reported two cases last week. NMDOH recorded the death of one unvaccinated Lea County resident on March 6, the second in the outbreak.

As CMM previously reported, NMDOH now considers the state’s outbreak to be connected to the one in West Texas as the measles strain is linked genetically, and Lea County neighbor Gaines County. On March 11, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) also confirmed two measles cases. The Oklahoma cases both reported exposure associated with the Texas and New Mexico outbreak.

Since viruses know no boundaries, the multistate outbreak also has reached the north state of Chihuahua in Mexico, which has recorded more than a dozen cases.

Measles also is in an uptick globally. A separate record outbreak in Canada has driven up cases across the Americas, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn earlier this month that the region’s “elimination status” was at risk, CBS News reported. Health officials in Europe and Asia also warned this week of an increase in measles cases there, amid gaps in immunization coverage.