Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin unveiled plans Tuesday to scrap the Obama-era endangerment finding declaration, which serves as the legal foundation for a host of climate regulations stemming from the Clean Air Act.
That law limits air pollutant emissions from sources including chemical plants, utilities, and steel mills.
As a result, Zeldin’s proposal would rescind the 2009 endangerment finding, which asserts that greenhouse gases like carbon monoxide and methane threaten public health.
“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” Zeldin said in a statement Tuesday. “In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year.”
Zeldin first announced plans to undo the regulation during an interview with the “Ruthless” podcast that aired on Tuesday, where he characterized the move as one that will drive “a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.”
Additionally, Zeldin said the proposed change would save Americans over $54 billion annually by scaling back regulations such as former President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate.
FOX NEWS’ PARTNERSHIP WITH ‘RUTHLESS’ PODCAST IMMEDIATELY MAKING WAVES ACROSS DC, MEDIA LANDSCAPE
“A lot of people are out there listening, they might not know what the endangerment finding is. If you ask congressional Democrats to describe what it is, the left would say that it means that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, carbon dioxide is an endangerment to human health. They might say methane is a pollutant, methane is an endangerment to human health,” Zeldin said on the “Ruthless” podcast.
“That’s an oversimplified, I would say inaccurate way to describe it,” Zeldin said. “The Obama administration said that carbon dioxide, when mixed with a bunch of other well-mixed gasses, greenhouse gasses, that it contributes to climate change. How much? They don’t say… they say that climate change endangers human health, so because of these different mental leaps… then there were all sorts of vehicle regulations that followed.”
Still, it will take a while before the finding is officially repealed, as it must undergo several hurdles, including a public comment period. Likewise, the proposal is expected to encounter legal challenges from environmental groups.
The Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental issues, cautioned that repealing the Obama-era finding would lead to dangerous consequences.
“These actions would lead to a predictable result – if there are no enforced limits on pollution, you get more of it, making life more expensive and even more dangerous,” Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp said in a statement Tuesday. “The stakes could not be higher for Americans.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read the full article here
