EPA Set to Repeal Landmark Finding That Climate Change Endangers the Public
Rachel Frazin The Hill
Extreme weather events like heatwaves have increased in frequency and intensity partly due to climate change. (photo: NOAA)
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday night that the repeal of the finding, which also underpins the nation’s climate regulation, would occur this week. A White House official confirmed to The Hill that the Journal’s report was accurate.
“This week at the White House, President Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a written statement on Tuesday.
When it proposed to repeal the finding last year, the EPA also proposed to repeal all climate regulations for cars and trucks along with it. The final repeal is expected to do the same — a massive regulatory rollback in and of itself, as transportation is the largest source of U.S. emissions.
Reached for comment, an EPA spokesperson noted that without the endangerment finding “EPA would lack statutory authority under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to prescribe standards for certain motor vehicle emissions.”
The spokesperson described the endangerment finding as “one of the most damaging decisions in modern history,” but did not say whether its repeal would happen this week.
The nation’s regulatory dashboard says that last year’s proposal is still “pending review” at the White House.
Repealing the endangerment finding would be a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s battle against green policies — going further than the first Trump administration which simply loosened auto emissions standards but left the endangerment finding in place.
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA administrator to regulate emissions from vehicles of any pollutant that “in his judgment cause, or contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”
The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that planet-warming emissions fall under the law’s definition of air pollutants and should be regulated if they’re found to be a threat to public health.
In 2009, the Obama administration determined that they do, in fact, pose a threat.
The EPA said at the time that “increases in ambient ozone are expected to occur over broad areas of the country, and they are expected to increase serious adverse health effects in large population areas.”
“The impact on mortality and morbidity associated with increases in average temperatures, which increase the likelihood of heat waves, also provides support for a public health endangerment finding,” it said. “The evidence concerning how human-induced climate change may alter extreme weather events also clearly supports a finding of endangerment.”
There is a consensus in the scientific community that human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels, is heating up the planet. This heating exacerbates extreme weather.
