The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to reverse its scientific determination that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health, removing the legal foundation that underpins all major climate regulations, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.
Reversal of the “endangerment finding” would gut one of the most consequential federal standards that had enabled the U.S. to tackle climate change by regulating vehicles, industries, and energy-producing facilities that emit heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Without the finding, the EPA could more easily undo major regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions, the sources said.
An EPA spokesperson said the agency sent its proposal for reconsidering the endangerment finding to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review on June 30 and it is being reviewed by other federal agencies.
“The proposal will be published for public notice and comment once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the Administrator,” an EPA spokesperson said in an email.
The Washington Post first reported on the decision.
The International Court of Justice on Wednesday issued a landmark advisory opinion saying greenhouse gas emissions pose an “existential threat” to the world and countries must cooperate on concrete emission reduction targets.
One source said the proposal would focus on EPA’s legal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, not the scientific basis for it. Lawyers have said that challenging the scientific basis of the finding would be difficult because the body of evidence that humans are causing climate change is “unequivocal.”
“It would be a shocking dereliction of a clear statutory duty to protect the public and an indefensible denial of overwhelming science. Also a national embarrassment,” said Sean Donahue, a lawyer with Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog, who has represented environmental groups in cases before the Supreme Court.
The U.S. is the largest historical greenhouse gas emitter and currently the No. 2 emitter after China.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark Massachusetts vs. EPA case in 2007, said the EPA has authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and required the agency to make a scientific finding on whether they endanger public health.
In 2009, the EPA under former President Barack Obama issued a finding that emissions from new motor vehicles contribute to pollution and endanger public health and welfare. It was upheld in several legal challenges and underpinned subsequent greenhouse gas regulations.
The EPA declined to take action on the endangerment finding during President Donald Trump’s first term as industry raised concerns. The current Trump administration set its sights early on the endangerment finding.
In January, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told his confirmation hearing the agency has authority but not an obligation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In March, the EPA launched a review of the finding, obeying a day-one executive order by Trump.
White House budget director Ross Vought said the review was “long overdue” because the finding had led to regulations that he said harmed the economy.
Zeldin announced over two-dozen de-regulatory actions aimed at “driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.”
Topics Pollution
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