- The Trump administration plans to repeal the EPA’s 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding, the legal backbone of U.S. climate regulation, calling it the largest deregulation effort in U.S. history.
- The rollback would eliminate greenhouse gas reporting, compliance and emissions standards for vehicles and engines, while largely sparing power plants and other stationary oil-and-gas facilities.
- EPA officials say the changes could cut over $1 trillion in regulations and save consumers about $2,400 per vehicle, as part of a broader push to lower energy costs and expand fossil fuel use.
In 2009, the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency concluded that six greenhouse gases posed a threat to public health and welfare, and the finding has since provided the legal foundation for U.S. climate regulation. This week, the Trump administration is planning on significantly shrinking the scope of the 2009 “endangerment finding.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told The Wall Street Journal, “This amounts to the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.”
The Trump administration plans on removing regulations that require automakers and engine manufacturers to measure, report, certify and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards.
It also repeals reporting obligations, compliance programs and credit provisions for industries that produce greenhouse gas emissions.
However, the policy change likely will not apply to power plants and other stationary oil-and-gas facilities, the Journal reported.
The rollback could total more than $1 trillion in regulation cuts, EPA officials said. They added that the deregulation would result in an average of $2,400 in savings per vehicle.
In a statement to AFP, the EPA said, “The Obama Administration made one of the most damaging decisions in modern history. ... The Endangerment Finding is the legal prerequisite used by the Obama and Biden Administrations to justify trillions of dollars of greenhouse gas regulations covering new vehicles and engines.”
Greenhouse gas deregulation has long been in the works for Trump
On the day of his second presidential inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order asking Zeldin to submit joint recommendations for the legality and future of the greenhouse gas regulations.
The EPA and the Department of Energy have been moving toward the conclusion to deregulate since then.
Less than a week after the DOE published its review of the influence of natural gases on the climate last July, the EPA announced a proposal to rescind the 2009 greenhouse gas finding.
In a report that challenged climate orthodoxy, the DOE found that higher levels of carbon dioxide are good for plants. Specifically, it found that increased carbon dioxide levels improve plants’ water efficiency.
Then the subsequent proposal reasoned that the Clean Air Act “does not authorize the EPA to prescribe emission standards to address global climate change concerns.”
The EPA then proposed rescinding the Obama administration’s findings “that (greenhouse gas) emissions from new motor vehicles and engines contribute to air pollution which may endanger public health or welfare.”
Deregulating the greenhouse gas endangerment finding is just one of several related announcements the Trump administration is rumored to make this week that aim to reduce energy costs.
On Wednesday, the president is expected to hold an event with Zeldin and DOE Secretary Chris Wright to announce a new executive order, which grants federal funding to five coal plants and directs the Department of Defense to buy coal-powered electricity, the Journal reported.