EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday repealed the endangerment finding ruling, calling it the “largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States,” which will save Americans billions of dollars in hidden taxes every year.
Zeldin formally rescinded what is known as the “endangerment finding,” which provided the legal basis for the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane.
The EPA chief has called it the “largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.”
During a Breitbart Fight Club Roundtable last July, the administrator explained why it was necessary to repeal the finding. He said that the finding has led to more than one trillion dollars in regulatory impact.
He said that the Endangerment Finding never made a “straight-line conclusion” that carbon dioxide from motor vehicle engines causes “endangerment.” He called the Endangerment Finding the “holy grail of the climate change religion.” It created the legal basis for the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, in the belief that the emissions are an alleged threat to public health and welfare.
He said in a written statement last July:
With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers. In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year. We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA’s GHG emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide which the Finding never assessed independently, was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods. If finalized, rescinding the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations would end $1 trillion or more in hidden taxes on American businesses and families. [Emphasis added]
WATCH — New Car Savings and More with Repeal of Obama-Era Greenhouse Gas Rule:
Daren Bakst, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) director of the Center for Energy & Environment, said in a statement cheering the announcement:
Today, the EPA took a big step in ensuring that the agency sticks to its statutory mission of environmental protection instead of being an economic central planner reshaping the economy and dictating how Americans live their lives. Greenhouse gas regulation is a tool that can be used as the basis for some of the most egregious examples of government abuse. We have already seen this with the Biden EPA’s efforts to try and kill off gas-powered cars and reliable electricity generation. Climate extremists will inevitably blast the EPA’s actions, but most Americans realize government policies that drive up prices, restrict freedom, and ignore the rule of law are devastating for the well-being of our nation.
Sterling Burnett, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, said:
This actions long overdue and good for the American people, freeing up the auto industry to make the vehicles people want unburdened by unnecessary emission restrictions or money losing electric vehicle mandates. Today is a win for car and truck buyers. Trump should be applauded for taking this action. Tge endangerment finding was never justified by either science or law. Now it’s time to strike another blow for affordability and strike while the iron is hot to rescind endangerment for power plants as well. Let’s hope the Administration is up to the task of defending this decision in court, and take it to the Supreme Court. For CO2 regulation to be put back in the hands of the legislature where it belongs, the Supreme Court must overturn the terrible majority ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA which spawned the endangerment finding in the first place.
Steve Milloy, former Trump EPA Transition Team Advisor and Senior Fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, said in written statement:
Rescinding the endangerment finding is great but it’s not the ballgame. Not only does the rescission have to stand up in court, it must result in the overturning of the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, where the Court wrongly ruled that EPA could regulate greenhouse gases even though Congress did not expressly authorize it. The 2022 SCOTUS decision in West Virginia v. EPA held that EPA must have express congressional authorization for major regulatory programs. So endangerment finding litigation must result in West Virginia v. EPA trumping Massachusetts v. EPA.
He added, “Even if the Trump EPA wins in court with respect to rescinding the endangerment finding, without also overturning Massachusetts v. EPA, the next Democrat-run EPA will simply re-issue the endangerment finding and all the Trump EPA’s great work will have been erased.”
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