EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin by Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg
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The Trump administration is set to announce its plans to abolish the U.S. government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, threatening to strike a deep blow at Washington’s ability to fight climate change.
The Environmental Protection Agency will unveil a proposal as early as July 29 to scrap a landmark determination that planet-warming gases endanger public health and welfare, according to people familiar with the matter. If finalized, the move would lay the foundation to unwind a host of regulations limiting emissions from power plants, oil wells and automobiles.
The EPA’s proposal will also aim to end some automobile emission limits, one of the people said. The agency declined to comment.
RELATED: Trump EPA Takes Aim at Climate Rules, Including in Trucking
Rolling back the 2009 endangerment finding would be among the most far-reaching steps yet by President Donald Trump’s administration to gut U.S. capacity to fight climate change. The finding forms the bedrock of the government’s authority to impose limits on carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. Ending it would be squarely at odds with the scientific consensus that those gases are causing climate change that’s already leading to rising seas and more intense storms.
Politico reported earlier that the EPA was set to propose throwing out the endangerment finding. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been recommending the move to Trump since as early as February.
Emissions rise from the Duke Energy coal-fired Asheville Power Plant in Arden, N.C. (Charles Mostoller/Bloomberg)
Environmentalists have argued that any move to reverse the endangerment finding not only bucks scientific conclusions about the ways carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases interact with the world’s atmosphere but also imperils the planet. Efforts to restrain emissions now are critical to restraining the world’s temperature rise and avoiding more tipping points where the consequences of climate change are magnified.
“The endangerment finding is based on decades of established, proven scientific evidence and has been repeatedly affirmed by courts,” said National Wildlife Federation chief scientist Diane Pataki. “Overturning this decision directly contradicts the EPA’s mandate to protect public health and address the sources of greenhouse gas pollution that have caused the climate crisis.”
The Supreme Court effectively compelled the EPA to asses the impact of greenhouse gases in 2007 when it affirmed the agency’s authority to regulate them as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. At that point, it was up to the EPA to determine whether greenhouse gases constituted a threat that should be regulated.
Critics have argued Congress designed the Clean Air Act to regulate localized pollutants, not those with widespread, global effects. Some have been pushing for repeal of the endangerment finding ever since. A policy blueprint drafted by conservative groups and Trump loyalists known as Project 2025 recommended addressing the endangerment finding.
Energy businesses and some Trump allies are deeply divided over the wisdom of efforts to wholly scrap the endangerment finding. Some are concerned the effort would siphon time and manpower from other regulatory priorities, including rewriting Biden-era rules governing power plant and vehicle pollution.
The effort would require the EPA to go through the formal, time-consuming federal rulemaking process. Even if the measure is finalized by the end of the year, it might not survive inevitable legal challenges.
Energy companies also have warned that doing away with the endangerment finding — as well as the federal climate regulations it supports — could revive public nuisance lawsuits against oil producers and power plant operators. Under a 2010 Supreme Court decision, federal climate regulation under the Clean Air Act has effectively precluded those claims.
