Elon Musk’s Tesla is calling on the EPA to uphold the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, warning that repealing these standards threatens the electric automaker’s investments and its alleged fight against “climate change.” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has labeled the rules as the “holy grail of the climate change religion.”
Axios reports that in newly available comments submitted to the EPA, Elon Musk’s Tesla strongly opposed the agency’s proposal to rescind the 2009 “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases from vehicles threaten human health and welfare. This formal finding provides the legal underpinning for regulating carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks, and by extension, some other major emissions sources.
Tesla argues that the endangerment finding is legal and “based on a robust factual and scientific record.” The company stated, “The Endangerment Finding — and the vehicle emissions standards which flow from it — have provided a stable regulatory platform for Tesla’s extensive investments in product development and production.”
The electric vehicle maker’s opposition puts it at sharp odds with the Trump administration, which has moved to roll back key climate policies. In August, the EPA issued the proposal that Administrator Lee Zeldin said “basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.”
Breitbart News previously reported on Zeldin targeted the polices:
The Endangerment Finding created the legal basis for the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, believing that the emissions serve as an alleged threat to public health and welfare.
Zeldin explained in a Breitbart Fight Club Roundtable that the Endangerment Finding never made a “straight-line conclusion” that carbon dioxide from motor vehicle engines caused “endangerment.” He described this finding as the “holy grail of the climate change religion.”
The EPA’s plan makes various legal and scientific arguments to support reconsidering the 2009 finding and tailpipe rules, many of which are heavily disputed. The agency claims that Supreme Court decisions in 2022 and 2024, which limited what executive agencies can do without explicit congressional approval, justify revisiting the policies. The EPA also alleges it “unreasonably analyzed the scientific record” in the original 2009 decision.
Tesla’s comments not only oppose repealing the endangerment finding, but also the EPA’s related plan to eliminate emissions rules for cars and trucks altogether. While acknowledging the current regulations are complex and could be streamlined, Tesla recognizes the “EPA’s authority and obligation to establish greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles.”
Environmental advocates, Democratic lawmakers, and many other stakeholders have also slammed the EPA’s proposal, arguing it ignores well-established climate science and would be devastating for reducing emissions from the transportation sector, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gases.
Read more at Axios here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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