Dozens of Democratic senators opened an investigation Friday into EPA’s process for overturning the bedrock scientific finding underpinning climate change regulation.
President Donald Trump officially overturned the so-called endangerment finding last week, capping off a monthslong process to repeal the Obama-era finding that greenhouse gas emissions should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
But 41 Democrats, led by Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), are now accusing EPA of treating the finding’s repeal as a “fait accompli” and not properly engaging with public comments or impact assessments.
“Setting aside the dire implications of this final rule, the timing of and context for this entire enterprise suggest that this was a predetermined outcome, perhaps dictated more by concern for corporate interests than by an honest review of the law and science of climate change,” the senators wrote in a letter to EPA.
