A few weeks after President Donald Trump took office for the second time, his newly installed EPA administrator Lee Zeldin huddled with senior agency officials for a briefing on the agency’s endangerment finding.
On his first day in office in January, Trump issued an executive order directing the EPA to consider the “legality and continuing applicability” of the Obama-era finding that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health and welfare. That finding set the stage for a series of EPA regulations aimed at limiting emissions.
The Trump EPA in July proposed to repeal that 2009 endangerment finding, a blockbuster move that some conservatives and industry groups applauded but that alarmed environmentalists and public health advocates.
Agency records released this week under a Freedom of Information Act request show which EPA staffers participated in a February meeting to brief Zeldin on the endangerment finding.
