EPA Plans “Largest Deregulatory Action” in History

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to revoke the 2009 declaration known as the ‘endangerment finding,’ a foundation of the government’s effort to fight climate change.

As Maxine Joselow and Lisa Friedman explain in the New York Times, the finding established that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. “The Obama and Biden administrations used that determination to set strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants and other industrial sources of pollution.”

Without the endangerment finding, the E.P.A. would be left with no authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions that are accumulating in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin called the change “the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States,” adding that the decision would eliminate limits on emissions for cars and trucks, among other regulations. In the United States, transportation emissions are the largest source of greenhouse gases.

The EPA cited a report from five scientists “known for their rejection of the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change” that claims climate change models exaggerate warming and that carbon dioxide has overall positive effects because of its usefulness to plants.