For the past 17 years, the federal government’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases has depended upon a 2009 scientific determination by the EPA that found that six greenhouse gases constitute the “air pollution” under the Clean Air Act that threatens both public health and welfare.
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is legally required to limit the emission from motor vehicles of any “air pollutant” that the agency determines “causes or contributes to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”
In 2007, the Supreme Court held in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases unambiguously are “air pollutants” under the Clean Air Act.
“The repeal of EPA’s endangerment finding is a giant step backward in our fight to secure a livable planet for future generations. With this action, Donald Trump and his administration have made climate denial the official policy of the United States by once again placing polluter profits ahead of the well-being of American families, ” said U.S. Congressman, Paul Tonko, a Democrat.
The National Academies of Science said in its report last September, the EPA’s endangerment finding “was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence.”
Manish Bapna, president & CEO of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), said, “This cynical and devastating action by the Trump EPA will not go forward without a fight. We will see them in court—and we will win.
“This is the single biggest attack in history on the federal government’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis. Nearly 20 years after the Supreme Court confirmed the EPA’s authority to act, the Trump EPA is leaving American families on their own to deal with the consequences.
“With millions of Americans facing stronger storms, hotter heat waves, and more dangerous wildfires, the Trump administration is trying to pretend it’s all a hoax and there’s nothing to be done about it. But the impacts of climate change are right here, right now."
Some analysts have said that without the Endangerment Finding, the legal basis for several Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions, specifically those framed as “climate pollution reduction” grants, becomes more vulnerable to litigation.
According to the NRDC, "The car rules alone would cut nearly eight billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades, more than the entire U.S. economy emits in a year. They would also mean fewer heart attacks, lung illnesses, and asthma attacks, resulting in $13 billion a year in avoided health care costs between 2026 and 2055, according to EPA analysis."
In making the announcement, EPA Aadminstrator Lee Zeldin said, “Referred to by some as the ‘Holy Grail’ of the ‘climate change religion,’ the endangerment finding is now eliminated.”
“The Trump EPA is strictly following the letter of the law, returning common sense to policy, and delivering consumer choice to Americans and advancing the American dream,” he added.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, put out a joint statement condeming the action.
“This shameful abdication — an economic, moral and political failure — will harm Americans’ health, homes and economic well-being. It ignores scientific fact and commonsense observations to serve big political donors.
“This sham decision initially relied on a now thoroughly disgraced and abandoned ‘report’ by known climate deniers. Zeldin stuck to this charade anyway, undaunted by half a century of actual evidence, showing the fix was in from the beginning.
“Trump’s fossil fuel corruption defies the will of the American people and undermines U.S. economic competitiveness at a moment when climate costs are already hitting families hard. The cascading failures have begun: climate change is disrupting weather and destabilizing insurance markets, and it threatens to upend mortgage markets, crash home values and trash the entire economy. As climate change drives up insurance premiums, grocery prices, energy costs and health care spending, American families will be left holding the bill,” they said.
