EPA on Thursday swept away a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy and set in motion plans to unwind a slew of federal programs used to combat global warming.
The rollback of the endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most significant blows to domestic climate efforts by the Trump administration, unshackling its efforts to eliminate requirements on industry aimed at lowering climate pollution from sources like cars, semitrucks and power plants.
The 2009 finding established under President Barack Obama underpinned a broad range of federal climate policies by empowering EPA to regulate six greenhouse gases through the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called it the “holy grail of the climate change religion.”
The move Thursday finalizes a proposal announced by the agency in July to repeal what many conservatives came to see as a mythical symbol that fueled climate action by Democratic presidents and activists for 16 years. The same package also scraps Biden-era vehicle standards for climate pollution, leaving the highest-emitting U.S. sector unregulated for carbon.
Removing the endangerment finding could ease EPA’s deregulatory efforts and make it harder for future administrations to implement climate rules under the same statutory authorities.
But first, the Trump repeals will have to survive inevitable court challenges — a process that could take two years or more if the dispute lands at the Supreme Court.
