EPA’s endangerment gambit could cause rules to spring back

The Trump administration will release a proposal in the coming days that it hopes will topple EPA’s climate rules like a pile of Jenga blocks.

But its strategy — namely, to undo the 2009 scientific finding that undergirds most climate rules — comes with big risks. If EPA pins too many regulatory rollbacks to its bid to revoke the so-called endangerment finding, the agency exposes itself to the possibility that many of those rule repeals won’t hold up in court.

The fate of the endangerment finding rescission will become tied to EPA’s deregulatory agenda.

“They’re swinging for the fences with this one,” said Meghan Greenfield, a partner at Jenner & Block. “If they fail in that bigger effort, then the standards will remain.”