The administration of President Donald Trump yesterday announced the repeal of a scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, removing the legal basis for federal climate regulations.
It also ended subsequent federal greenhouse gas emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027.
The move represents the most sweeping climate change policy rollback by the administration to date, after a string of regulatory cuts and other moves intended to unfetter fossil fuel development and stymie the rollout of clean energy.
“Under the process just completed by the EPA, we are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and drove up prices for American consumers,” Trump said, announcing the repeal beside EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and White House Budget director Russ Vought, who has long sought to revoke the finding.
Trump has said he believes climate change is a hoax, and has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement, leaving the world’s largest historic contributor to global warming out of international efforts to combat it in addition to killing Biden-era tax credits aimed at accelerating deployment of electric cars and renewable energy.
The so-called endangerment finding was first adopted by the United States in 2009, and led the EPA to take action under the Clean Air Act of 1963 to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and four other heat-trapping air pollutants from vehicles, power plants and other industries.
Its repeal would remove the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, but may not initially apply to stationary sources such as power plants.
The transportation and power sectors are each responsible for around a quarter of US greenhouse gas output, according to EPA figures.
The EPA said the repeal will save US taxpayers 1.3 trillion, eliminating both the endangerment finding and all federal GHG emission standards for vehicles.
While many industry groups back the repeal of stringent vehicle emission standards, they have been reluctant to show public support for rescinding the endangerment finding because of the legal and regulatory uncertainty it could unleash.
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