There once was a time when doomsday cults and apocalyptic predictions were the realm of messianic preachers and the Book of Revelations. 

But buckle up, because we are about to hear some of the wildest predictions now that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has decided to cut some of America’s most burdensome, ineffective and costly regulations.

“We are all gonna die!” they’re sure to scream.

Zeldin’s cancellation of the Obama-era Endangerment Finding is sure to prompt warnings that the Earth’s polar ice will melt, wildfires will spread, rivers will overrun, locusts, frogs, slaying of the first-born.

If it’s hot outside, Zeldin, President Trump and climate change will be blamed.

If it’s cold, Zeldin, Trump and climate change.  

It’s all nonsense, of course. The globalist left has drunk the Kool-Aid of environmental fanaticism, and it’s led to some of the worst policy decisions of the last two decades. 

It’s why we have pointless EV mandates, why Germany foolishly scrapped nuclear energy, why we block pipelines, why our showers have little water pressure. 

In New York, it’s worse. It’s the reason we shut the Indian Point nuclear plant and imposed gas-appliance and fracking bans and congestion pricing.

Climate change is the religion that justifies socking the middle class with massive Local Law 97 carbon costs in the city.    

None of these moves will actually save the planet, mind you. And that’s why it’s great news that Trump, Zeldin & Co. are aiming to right-size emissions standards and energy regulations.

We need a reset of the balance between environmentalism and pragmatism, with reality taking a larger role.

The American consumer and entrepreneur will matter from now on. 

Energy prices have soared as power producers struggled to comply with regulations. This caused the premature retirement of facilities that provided steady baseload energy before carbon-free alternatives could be brought online.

Americans are just now realizing that rainbows and sprinkles don’t actually power their iPhone chargers. 

Meanwhile, there’s overwhelming new demand for energy as AI and data centers become more commonplace. Unlike the seas rising an inch every 100 years, this is a real and immediate challenge, and one that presents America with existential threats from abroad.

What we need is the ability to generate electrical power to keep up with demand. Today’s EPA rule reversal does just that. 

The regulations stifled US manufacturing, specifically the auto industry, where EV mandates forced manufacturers to invest billions into products that consumers, including many Democrats, simply didn’t want. Ford lost $19.5 billion on EVs. 

But while we are finally seeing a change at the federal level, the cult remains alive and well in New York. 

The City Council, which shouts incessantly about affordability, added thousands of dollars a year in costs to middle-class homeowners, renters and office tenants through the passage of Local Law 97.

It’s no surprise some are now desperately trying to repeal or soften climate-change law (without upsetting the climate police, natch). 

Of course, the award for the most backward New York environmental policy goes to a project soon to break ground in Washington County: The Fort Edward Solar Project calls for a Canadian energy company to destroy over 1,800 acres of protected natural grassland — literally the good Lord’s most clean and pristine environment — by leveling it and covering it with a massive solar farm.

Such cult-level stupidity is only possible when you can’t see the forest for the trees you’re trying to protect.

So while it’s great that the Zeldin EPA is making our nation’s environmental policy rational, New York’s extremism, alas, will continue to take a toll.

What a shame for New York that he lost in his bid for governor in 2022, but it’s now clear that the state’s loss was the country’s gain.

Joe Borelli is a managing director at Chartwell Strategy Group and was the Republican leader of the City Council.