Trump Rolls Back Key Environmental Regulation Underpinning Nearly Two Decades of Emissions Restrictions

President Trump is rolling back a key administrative rule that has been used for the better part of two decades to enact regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, known as the “Endangerment Finding.” It is the most consequential action taken by the president to date in his attempt to either stall or reverse a transition to green energy, including increasing the number of electric vehicle sales. The Endangerment Finding was signed in December 2009 during the Obama administration by the then-EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson. It found that certain greenhouse gases were especially dangerous to the public’s health.The regulation states that “six key well-mixed greenhouse gases” — carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride — “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generation.”After beginning the process last year to roll back that rule, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin and the president announced at the White House on Thursday that the regulation was officially being terminated. Mr. Trump said at the White House that the Endangerment Finding “severely damaged” the American car manufacturing industry and drove up prices. “It had no basis in law,” Mr. Trump said of the regulation on Thursday. “This radical rule became the legal foundation for the ‘Green New Scam,’” which is the president’s chosen catch-all phrase for President Biden’s climate regulations. “For example, under the Endangerment Finding, they forced the hated ‘start–stop’ feature onto American consumers, which unnecessarily shuts off a car’s engine when you stop at a red light,” the president said. “These crippling restrictions were a major factor in driving up car prices to unprecedented levels.”Speaking to the press, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin estimated that Americans would save as much as $2,400 on new cars as a result of the rollback. “The Obama and Biden administrations used it to steamroll into existence a left-wing wishlist of costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates, and other requirements that assaulted consumer choice and affordability,” Mr. Zeldin said. Experts warn that revocation of the rule will lead to significantly worse health outcomes as a result of automobiles not being more heavily regulated. “Today, Administrator Zeldin took a chainsaw to the Endangerment Finding, undoing this long-standing, science-based finding on bogus grounds at the expense of our health,” the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Gretchen Goldman, said in a statement. “Ramming through this unlawful, destructive action at the behest of polluters is an obvious example of what happens when a corrupt administration and fossil fuel interests are allowed to run amok.”Democratic politicians, too, were deeply critical of Mr. Trump’s decision on Thursday, saying that rolling back the Endangerment Finding would result in more polluted air and higher global temperatures. “Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules,” President Obama, who oversaw the creation of the rule, wrote on X Thursday. “Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.”Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said the president and his team are looking to “Make Pollution Great Again.” ““This decision betrays the American people and cements the Republican Party’s status as the pro-pollution party,” the California governor’s office said Thursday. “If this reckless decision survives legal challenges, it will lead to more deadly wildfires, more extreme heat deaths, more climate-driven floods and droughts, and greater threats to communities nationwide.”The top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, offered a similar critique, saying in a statement that rolling back the Endangerment Finding “ignores scientific fact and common-sense observations to serve big political donors.”

Trump Rolls Back Key Environmental Regulation Underpinning Nearly Two Decades of Emissions Restrictions

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