EPA rejects key finding underpinning US climate rules

Indianapolis—US Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin announced Tuesday that the agency is moving to repeal its 2009 endangerment finding, the legal and scientific basis for federal climate regulations under the Clean Air Act, which says that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions endanger public health and welfare. The EPA’s proposal to repeal the endangerment finding also includes removing GHG emission limits for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles that rely on the endangerment finding.“If finalized, this will amount to the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States,” Zeldin said at a commercial truck dealership in northeastern Indianapolis alongside Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.Speaking in the un-air-conditioned warehouse for Kenworth of Indianapolis to a group of Kenworth employees, members of the Indiana Motor Truck Association, local politicians, and members of the local press, Zeldin said that when the endangerment finding was created in 2009, the creators made “many, many, many mental leaps.”When the Clean Air Act was initially written, it took into account only the “air toxics,” or compounds that directly affect human health when breathed in. Zeldin called the interpretation of the Clean Air Act to include GHGs, which are not directly toxic to humans by themselves, an “extremely creative and unprecedented spin,” and an “oversimplified statement to the point that it’s just not accurate.” The Obama administration EPA’s scientific justification for the endangerment finding relied on assumptions and made predictions for climate change that ended up not being true, Zeldin said.But many environmental experts disagree with Zeldin’s assessment.