The Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to reverse a landmark finding that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health could have profound implications for current and future climate regulations.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced on Tuesday a proposal to withdraw the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which concluded that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, pose a threat to public health and welfare. The finding was supported by a 2007 Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, affirming that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
The public comment period for the proposed rule ends in September. The agency will then issue a final rule, likely facing legal challenges that could take several years to settle.
Nevertheless, the EPA’s effort to repeal the Endangerment Finding could have lasting effects for regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.
Auto emission standards
The Endangerment Finding serves as the legal basis for the EPA to regulate vehicle emissions. Withdrawing the finding would directly affect vehicle emission standards.
“This proposal, if finalized, is expected to save Americans $54 billion in costs annually through the repeal of all greenhouse gas standards, including the Biden EPA’s electric vehicle mandate, under conservative economic forecasts,” the EPA said on Tuesday.
A repealed Endangerment Finding would eliminate all emission standards for light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as heavy-duty engines. Last year, former President Joe Biden lowered the vehicle emission targets and mandated that 67% of new cars sold be electric by 2032. The rules allow automakers to meet targets by including other types of vehicles, such as plug-in hybrids and improved internal combustion engine vehicles. They also incentivize automakers to incorporate start-stop technology in new cars to help reduce emissions.
Cars and trucks emit a significant amount of greenhouse gases, making them the largest source of pollution in the U.S. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has taken action to repeal various policies that promote EV adoption set by the Biden administration, which he has dubbed a national “EV mandate.”
Some in the sector have warned that removing the Endangerment Finding would disadvantage the U.S. compared to China in the EV market.
EPA’s efforts to repeal the Endangerment Finding come at a time when “clean car sales are growing steadily and powering a battery and vehicle manufacturing boom across the United States,” Zero Emission Transportation Association Executive Director Albert Gore said on Tuesday in a statement.
“Taking backward steps and adding new regulatory uncertainty harms consumers, unsettles markets, and will complicate ongoing business decisions for auto manufacturers,” Gore said.
“Meanwhile, international markets will continue to buy efficient and electrified cars. We cannot cede this market to our chief global competitors. The goals of American job growth and a globally competitive economy are all aligned with the success of our U.S. EV and battery industry,” he added.
Other climate regulations at risk
If the EPA successfully repeals the Endangerment Finding, its impact could go beyond vehicle emission standards. The overhaul could affect pollutant standards for power plants and oil and gas drilling.
Zach Pilchen, Senior Counsel at Holland & Knight, said via email, “Although this proposal is most immediately about motor vehicle emissions, EPA expressly recognizes that the Endangerment Finding played a role in many other greenhouse gas actions under the Clean Air Act. Depending on EPA’s final approach, the ramifications could extend far beyond the auto sector.”
The EPA foreshadowed that it could take additional steps to repeal other emission standards from other sources.
“The EPA recognizes that we have relied in part on the Endangerment Finding in issuing subsequent endangerment findings and GHG regulations under other CAA provisions, including for certain stationary sources and aircraft engines … For those actions that remain in effect, we have initiated or intend to initiate separate rulemakings that will address any overlapping issues,” the EPA wrote in the proposed rule.
The agency has used the Endangerment Finding to justify regulating pollutants from power plants and oil and gas drilling.
Specifically, if the finding is withdrawn, it would affect the regulatory framework that limits greenhouse gas emissions released by power plants. It would also help to weaken standards on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.
When the EPA decided to regulate carbon dioxide and methane from power plants and the oil and gas sectors, it relied on arguments supporting the Endangerment Finding, said Joseph Goffman, former EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation during the Biden administration.
The Endangerment Finding withdrawal is a “direct hit” on the vehicle emission standards, Goffman said. But, he added, it would help the agency justify deregulating power plant and methane emission rules by weakening the initial justification used during the Obama and Biden administrations.
ZELDIN TO RESCIND OBAMA-ERA EPA FINDING ON DANGER OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Earlier this week, the EPA released an interim final rule that would delay the implementation of the Biden administration’s methane emission standard for oil and gas drilling. The EPA has also sought to undo regulations limiting carbon and toxic emissions from fossil fuel power plants.
The Endangerment Finding, as well as the power plant and oil and gas emission rules, are listed as part of Zeldin’s sweeping deregulatory plan to undo 31 actions implemented by the Biden administration.
“By overhauling massive rules on the endangerment finding, the social cost of carbon and similar issues, we are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age,” Zeldin wrote in an opinion article published in the Wall Street Journal in March.
