EPA might reverse ‘endangerment finding’ for greenhouse gas emissions

July 29 (UPI) — Environmental Protection Agency officials might end the agency’s prior “endangerment finding” for greenhouse gas emissions and repeal regulations for motor vehicles and engines.

The endangerment finding triggered the creation of $1 trillion in federal regulations, including an electric vehicle mandate, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said during a press event at an Indianapolis auto dealership on Tuesday.

“The Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” Zeldin said in a news release.

“Many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year,” Zeldin said.

Reversing the endangerment finding would eliminate costly regulations and help consumers save more than $54 billion in annual costs, he added.

“We heard loud and clear the concern that the EPA’s GHG emission standards themselves [and] not carbon dioxide … was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods,” Zeldin said.

The EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding was not assessed independently and is the basis for costly regulations imposed by the Obama and Biden administrations and others at the state level, he added.

The EPA in 2009 declared greenhouse gases to be a threat to public health and added such gases to those regulated by the Clean Air Act.

The Obama and Biden administrations used the declaration to impose $1 trillion in regulations and mandate two-thirds of light vehicles and 46% of medium-duty vehicles produced by the auto industry be electric vehicles by 2032.

Zeldin said such regulations would “bankrupt the country” in the name of climate change, CBS News reported.

A March 2024 EPA impact report claims limiting vehicular greenhouse gas emissions would net more than $2.1 trillion in benefits over the next 30 years.

The savings would include $829 billion in fuel savings and $1.8 trillion in climate and public health benefits, according to the report.

Removing the greenhouse gas regulations imposed by the Obama and Biden administrations also would “amount to the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States,” Zeldin said, as reported by The New York Times.

Former Vice President Al Gore accused Zeldin and the Trump administration of favoring fossil fuels and profits over safety.

“Today’s EPA announcement ignores the blindingly obvious reality of the climate crisis and sidelines the EPA’s own scientists and lawyers in favor of the interests and profits of the fossil fuel industry,” Gore said in a prepared statement.

The EPA’s anticipated move would increase air pollution and people’s cost of living, Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp predicted in a prepared statement.

“If there are no enforced limits on pollution, you get more of it, making life more expensive and even more dangerous,” Krupp said. “The stakes could not be higher for Americans.”

Reversing the EPA’s endangerment finding would require a period of public comment before taking effect and withstanding likely lawsuits challenging the proposed change.