The Trump administration has reportedly drafted a plan to essentially roll back the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, according to multiple reports.
The agency reportedly plans to propose a rule that will be public soon to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which stipulates that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can be regulated for the sake of human health and the environment, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported late Tuesday night, each citing two anonymous sources familiar with the situation. The agency reportedly argues in the draft that the Endangerment Finding has been used to impose harsh regulations on power plants and vehicles that minimize consumer choice in ways that do not comport with the law, as energy sector experts have previously explained to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The 2009 Endangerment Finding was the first step in the Obama-Biden Administration’s (and later the Biden-Harris Administration’s) overreaching climate agenda. That agenda has imposed trillions of dollars of costs on Americans,” a March 12 agency announcement on reconsidering the Endangerment Finding reads. “EPA will ensure that the Endangerment Finding complies with the law and is based on sound science and policy, as it must do with all its actions.”
If the agency undoes the Endangerment Finding, stringent emissions rules on power plants and vehicles could be rolled back, which would position the administration to strengthen the U.S. electricity grid and protect consumer choice, experts have explained to the DCNF previously. The proposal’s specific contents are reportedly expected to be made public as soon as within the next few days, according to the NYT.
The proposal reportedly will argue that the EPA overreached its authority to regulate greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act, according to the reports. The Clean Air Act was not designed to regulate gasses like carbon dioxide and it does not do so effectively, Myron Ebell, former director for the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, previously told the DCNF.
Additionally, the forthcoming proposal reportedly targets a tailpipe emissions rule on the grounds that such auto regulations pose harm to human health by spiking costs and robbing consumers of choice, according to the NYT.
After announcing reconsideration of the rule alongside the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other federal agencies in March, the EPA then submitted a request to OMB related to the Finding on June 30, though the details of that submission have not yet been publicized.
“The proposal will be published for public notice and comment once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the Administrator,” an EPA spokesperson told the DCNF, noting the June 30 submission to OMB and the March 12 reconsideration announcement. The agency did not confirm the contents of the proposal to the DCNF.
The draft proposal could still be adjusted, and it will make its way through the federal rulemaking process. The proposal will be open to public comment for at least 30 days in the Federal Register before EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin could sign it; significant rules typically require a 60-day implementation delay.
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