For over 15 years, the government has operated on limited scientific research and legal findings to justify its climate action agenda. Now, the Trump administration is seriously considering scrapping the crux of these Obama-era climate change regulations.
The Trump administration is reconsidering the EPA’s “endangerment finding,” a 2009 rule based on the results of the 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court case. The endangerment finding mandates the EPA to curb climate change caused by greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, last amended in 1990.
‘Under the enlightened leadership of President Trump and Administrator Zeldin, the time for fresh thought has finally arrived.’
On his first day in office, President Trump signed Executive Order 14154, called “Unleashing American Energy,” which mandated that the EPA and the Office of Management and Budget review the endangerment finding and related environmental regulations.
RELATED: EV mandate killed in ‘biggest day of deregulation in American history’
Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in March, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin explained the goal of Trump’s executive orders: “By overhauling massive rules on the endangerment finding, we are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age.”
Now, a page on the OMB website lists an “economically significant” proposed rule titled the “Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Reconsideration Rule.” No other details about this proposed rule are available at this time because it still needs to be finalized and announced to the public. The rule was received by the OMB from the EPA on June 30.
The decision to reconsider the endangerment finding has caused a stir among climate change groups. David Doniger, a senior attorney at the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, told the Post, “They’re trying to completely defang the Clean Air Act by saying, ‘Well, this stuff’s just not dangerous.’ That claim is just mind-bogglingly contrary to the evidence.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, told the Washington Post, “It’s long since past the time for an administration to review this. Ultimately, Congress should have a say when it’s all said and done.”
Several of the leaders involved in this reconsideration have signaled their support for the Trump administration’s order in the past.
In a March press release, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Jeff Clark said, “Since 2009, I’ve consistently argued that the endangerment finding required a consideration of downstream costs imposed on both mobile sources like cars and stationary sources like factories. Under the enlightened leadership of President Trump and Administrator Zeldin, the time for fresh thought has finally arrived.”
“EPA’s regulation of the climate affects the entire national economy — jobs, wages, and family budgets. It’s long overdue to look at the impacts on our people of the underlying Obama endangerment finding,” said White House OMB Director Russ Vought in the press release.
“The 2009 endangerment finding has had an enormously negative impact on the lives of the American people. For more than 15 years, the U.S. government used the finding to pursue an onslaught of costly regulations — raising prices and reducing reliability and choice on everything from vehicles to electricity and more. It’s past time the United States ensures the basis for issuing environmental regulations follows the science and betters human lives,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.
The endangerment finding will be reconsidered by the Office of Management and Budget before an official announcement to the public.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Politics, Epa, Omb, Lee zeldin, Russ vought, Climate action, Unleashing american energy, Endangerment finding
