President Donald Trump on Monday ordered his administration to reconsider a foundational climate change ruling as part of his broad realignment in federal energy policy to favor fossil fuels.
Included in a sweeping executive order on energy issues, Trump directed EPA submit a report to the White House within 30 days “on the legality and continuing applicability” of the 2009 endangerment finding for greenhouse gases.
A formal acknowledgment that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health and welfare, the finding is the legal underpinning of key EPA climate regulations for vehicles and power plants. Revoking it would hobble EPA’s climate regulatory authority.
Some conservatives have called for the finding to be revoked. But many experts agree that the overwhelming scientific evidence underlying climate change would make a withdrawal legally indefensible. Efforts to reconsider the finding during Trump’s first term did not progress, with his administration even rejecting petitions on the matter.