In one fell swoop, Trump overturned US greenhouse gas regulations

The Trump administration has just reversed a landmark finding that had strengthened federal regulations on planet-heating pollution since 2009.

Over the past almost two decades,Find danger“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has authorized rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Instead of striking down these rules individually, the Trump administration could undermine them all at once by attacking the danger finding.”

today, The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized its plans to scrap the hazard finding as part of its attempts to reform exhaust pollution standards. The move could also impact efforts to reduce carbon emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities that increase energy consumption Extreme weather and other climate disasters. And since the United States is pumping out more climate-changing carbon pollution than any other country in the world other than China, the impact will be felt around the world.

“It is impossible to imagine a morally defensible reason for (EPA) Administrator (Lee) Zeldin’s decision to end EPA’s responsibility to reduce climate pollution that endangers people’s health,” Dominic Browning, Moms Clean Air Force director and co-founder, said in an email press release. “Zeldin’s legacy will be the suffering of our children and grandchildren.”

In 2009, when the EPA issued a hazard finding, it recognized that greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere”It threatens the public health and well-being of present and future generations“. the The World Health Organization has warned against this There could be an additional 250,000 deaths annually between 2030 and 2050 due to malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress, exacerbated by climate change.

Now, the EPA says it is focused on reducing regulations it deems costly to U.S. businesses and consumers. When the agency first proposed rescinding the hazard finding last year, it did so He claimed That automakers “experienced significant uncertainties and significant costs related to overall regulations of greenhouse gases emitted by vehicles and trucks.”

The agency announced today that it will eliminate “all subsequent federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for all vehicles and engines from model years 2012 through 2027 and beyond” by rescinding the hazard finding. “As EPA Administrator, I am proud to advance the single largest deregulation action in U.S. history on behalf of American taxpayers and consumers,” Zeldin said. he said in the press release.

The agency now says that removing regulatory requirements for greenhouse gases would cumulatively save more than $1.3 trillion, cutting an average $2,400 off the cost of a vehicle (without revealing in the press release how it arrived at that amount). Formerly the Environmental Protection Agency estimated The cancellation would save $54 billion annually, although its analysis assumes lower gas prices and excludes more Costs incurred Effects of climate change. Rolling back exhaust pollution rules by eliminating detection of the hazard could already happen It will cost Americans $310 billion over the next 25 years – Mostly at the gas pump – according to A a report By the nonpartisan Center for Climate Policy Research, Energy Innovation.

Definitely cancel Facing legal challenges From environmental groups. That could eventually send the case to the Supreme Court, where President Donald Trump has appointed three of the justices who make up the current 6-3 conservative majority. If that happens, the current justices could reverse what happened in 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA The decision that allowed the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act in the first place. In doing so, they will hinder future administrations from reinstating climate rules enabled by threat discoveries.

Congress will have to enact legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions again at the federal level. In its announcement today, the EPA says the Clean Air Act does not give the agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles “for the purpose of addressing global climate change.” “A policy decision of this magnitude, with sweeping economic and political consequences, rests solely with Congress,” the report says.

Countries can also step up their efforts to reduce climate pollution. “We cannot allow federal attacks to limit Colorado’s clean transportation ambitions,” Aaron Kresig, director of transportation electrification at the nonprofit Western Resource Advocates, said in a news release. “It is time for state leaders to take bold action.”

Navigating a web of different state policies could create greater legal risks for automakers, according to Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emissions Transportation Association. “Removing risk detection creates enormous risks and uncertainty in the regulatory framework on which sustainable economic growth has depended for decades,” Gore says in his report. press release. “(It) pulls the rug out from companies that have invested in manufacturing next-generation vehicles across the United States.”