The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Tuesday that it is formally moving to end the rule allowing the agency to regulate greenhouse gasses, which will allow greater consumer choice, cut transportation costs and benefit the American energy industry, energy policy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Tuesday that the agency proposed a rule to roll back the Obama-era regulation, which the Trump administration and industry experts argue stands on weak scientific evidence and has been used to impose harsh rules on power plants and vehicles in the name of fighting climate change. If the rule’s repeal is finalized, the key basis for a number of aggressive climate regulations will be gone, which will in turn translate to more consumer freedom and lower costs, experts told the DCNF.
“Dismantling the Endangerment Finding removes the foundation of which the Green New Scam was built,” Mandy Gunasekara, a former EPA chief of staff under the first Trump administration, told the DCNF. “The Endangerment Finding has been used by Democrats to re-engineer the economy, sell out U.S. jobs to high-polluting countries like China and burden American families with expensive energy and goods. This ends today.” (RELATED: EPA Officially Moving To Blow Up Foundation Of Left’s ‘Climate Change Religion,’ Zeldin Says)
The agency argued that the Endangerment Finding has been used to justify over $1 trillion in regulations, including the Biden-era electric vehicle (EV) mandate. If finalized, the rule would strip the agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act and would repeal the emissions standards for light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles as well as heavy duty engines, according to the EPA.
The vehicle standard roll backs would include the 2010 rules for light-duty vehicles and 2011 rules for medium-duty vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles and engines, which includes credits for features like the controversial start-stop technology, the agency said Tuesday. Additionally, the proposal challenges the scientific backing of the Endangerment Finding and cites new data with updated studies from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Climate Work Group that is also open for public comment, according to the EPA.
Zeldin announced the proposal from an auto dealership in Indianapolis, Indiana, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Indiana officials — including Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Baird — alongside auto industry figures.
The announcement is part of the Trump administration’s broader deregulatory agenda, which aims to eliminate burdensome rules that hold back the energy industry, saddle Americans with expensive electricity costs and weaken the power grid. The Endangerment Finding has been used to impose draconian regulations on power plants and vehicles that harm Americans, according to industry experts.
“President Trump promised to make life in our country more affordable again and allow our great American industries to thrive. Administrator Zeldin’s proposed actions have cleared the way. Now the EPA can focus on real solutions for health and the environment,” Gunasekara said. Zeldin has repeatedly said that the EPA is returning to its core mission of protecting human health and the environment.
After announcing in March that it would reconsider the Endangerment Finding in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other federal agencies, the EPA submitted a related request to OMB on June 30. The specifics of that submission were not disclosed until Tuesday. Now that the rule has been announced, it will be published in the federal register and available for public comment for at least 30 days, in line with the federal rulemaking process.
The Finding stems back to the 2007 Supreme Court case, Massachusetts vs. EPA, in which the court ruled that greenhouse gases qualify as air pollutants subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act, establishing the legal foundation for the Endangerment Finding two years later.
“If finalized, rescinding the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations would end $1 trillion or more in hidden taxes on American businesses and families,” Zeldin said. “With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers.” (RELATED: Dems Finally Realizing Most Americans Don’t Want Enormous Climate Agenda Imposed On Them)
Several energy policy experts agree that the Endangerment Finding ultimately needs to be repealed.
“It’s a great day for America, and President Trump deserves the credit. EPA’s finding that carbon dioxide emissions endanger public health and welfare was based on phony model predictions and has been used by the Obama and Biden administrations to impose energy-rationing regulations that raise prices and limit consumer choice,” Myron Ebell, leader of the EPA transition team under the first Trump administration, told the DCNF. “Americans can look forward to a brighter future because of the bold action taken by the EPA today.”
Climate Depot’s Marc Morano dubbed Zeldin the “most consequential EPA chief in the agency’s history,” arguing that the proposal to roll back the Endangerment Finding represents removing “the basis for all climate nonsense that we’ve had to endure for the last several decades.”
In pursuit of their climate agenda, the Democrats used the Endangerment Finding to pursue regulations targeting “everything from gas-powered appliance bans, gas-powered car bans, to restrictions on agricultural, meat, power plants, travel, ceiling fans, pizza ovens, energy mandates, subsidies and thermostat controls,” Morano told the DCNF.
Director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment at the Heritage Foundation Diana Furchtgott-Roth celebrated the proposed repeal of the vehicle rules, arguing that they will ultimately cut transportation costs for Americans.
“This is a long overdue and much-needed step toward undoing Obama-era rules that gave power to unelected bureaucrats so they could make sweeping decisions about America’s energy future,” said Daniel Turner, founder and executive editor for Power the Future. “With this action, the Trump administration is removing power from the shadows — where activist lawyers and career bureaucrats operated for years — and restoring accountability to American energy decisions. Administrator Zeldin deserves great credit for this bold and decisive move.”
The White House did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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