US President Donald Trump revoked a key 2009 scientific finding that has been the basis for all US actions to fight climate change.
US President Donald Trump has reversed a scientific finding that underpins US efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, marking Trump's biggest effort to dismantle climate regulations.
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The Environmental Protection Agency or EPA's new rule cancels a 2009 "endangerment finding" which says that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The Obama-finding is the legal basis for most climate rules under the Clean Air Act covering emissions from cars, power plants and other sources that warm the planet. Court challenges are expected.
The repeal wipes out all greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks and could open the door to rolling back on rules on power plants and oil and gas sites, according to experts.
President Donald Trump praised the move as “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far,” while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the endangerment finding “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach.”
Trump called the endangerment finding “one of the greatest scams in history,” claiming falsely that it “had no basis in fact” or law. “On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world,” while scientists widely agree that greenhouse gases are driving catastrophic heat waves and storms, rising sea levels and droughts.
The EPA also said it will propose a two-year delay to a Biden-era rule restricting greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks.
Zeldin, a former Republican congressman chosen by Trump to lead the EPA, has accused past Democratic administrations of being ‘willing to bankrupt the country’ in the name of fighting climate change.
American families will feel the consequences
Environmental groups called the repeal the biggest blow ever to federal climate authority, saying the evidence behind the original finding has only grown stronger. Fred Krupp of the Environmental Defence Fund said “This action will only lead to more climate pollution, and that will lead to higher costs and real harms for American families," as well as worsening Americans health, property values, water supply and more.
In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Since then, courts have repeatedly upheld the EPA’s endangerment finding.
The finding is considered the legal foundation for climate rules meant to address worsening threats such as floods, heat waves, wildfires and other disasters.
Critics of the repeal, including former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, called the move reckless "This EPA would rather spend its time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,” she said.
Former President Barack Obama wrote on social media that the repeal of the endangerment finding will make Americans “less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.”
Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and head of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, said Trump’s move “prioritises the profits of big oil and gas companies and polluters over clean air and water” and children’s health. She warned that “I’m going to see more sick kids come into the Emergency Department having asthma attacks and more babies born prematurely,” adding that her colleagues will see more heart attacks and cancer.
David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defence Council said Trump and Zeldin are using the repeal as a “kill shot’’ to wipe out most climate rules. He said it could erase limits on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, factories and power plants and make it harder for future administrations to act on global warming.
The EPA's move follows a Trump executive order directing the agency to review "the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some Republican lawmakers have long argued that climate rules are too restrictive and hurt the economy.