The new push aims to end the EPA's authority to address climate change, writes Chris Knight
US president Donald Trump is looking to repeal more than a decade's worth of CO2 emission limits on cars and trucks using a new legal interpretation that, if upheld, could close the door on future climate-related regulations in the US.
The administration's proposal, released this week, takes aim at the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) landmark 2009 finding — made under former president Barack Obama — that greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by cars and trucks are enough of a public health threat to be regulated under the Clean Air Act. This endangerment finding served as the basis for Obama and former president Joe Biden to regulate CO2 emissions from passenger vehicles, heavy-duty trucks, power plants and oil and gas facilities.
Rescinding the finding is equivalent to "driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion", and would be the "largest deregulatory action in the history of America", EPA administrator Lee Zeldin says.
The planned repeal of the finding would go much further than Trump's deregulatory push in his first term, when he worked to water down CO2 limits on vehicles and power plants but did not seek the outright elimination of the EPA's authority to address climate change. But Trump has surrounded himself with those who see limited urgency to address climate change — US energy secretary Chris Wright this week released a 151-page "climate review" that touts the benefits of increased GHG concentrations — and who believe conservative judges in the judiciary will uphold their actions.
Critics see the administration's arguments as a flimsy attempt to unwind a decade of climate policy. "They think they have found a convenient loophole to get rid of all climate regulations," environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney Meredith Hankins says.
The EPA has advanced two primary arguments for rescinding its endangerment finding and its corresponding GHG standards. First, it says the "best reading" of the Clean Air Act is that it was only meant to protect the public from "local or regional exposure" to air pollutants, rather than the effects of climate change. Second, the EPA says it never received clear authorisation to regulate GHGs, something it contends is the type of "major question" that the US Supreme Court said in a 2022 ruling could only be resolved by the US Congress.
Both of those arguments could equally apply to the EPA's decision to regulate methane from the oil and gas sector. The agency this week delayed its methane regulations by 18 months while it reconsiders the basis for the rule. And in June, the EPA proposed to repeal all existing climate regulations for power plants based on an argument that the power sector — the second-largest source of GHG emissions in the US — does not contribute significantly to "dangerous" air pollution. Taken together, the administration is looking to eliminate or dismantle most climate rules on the books, while at the same time blocking climate-related lawsuits and climate regulations from states.
Ending wind ‘favouritism'
The administration's attack on climate regulations comes after Congress enacted a law that will kill off most tax credits for wind and solar, but with an exemption sought by moderate Republicans for projects starting construction within a year. Trump has subsequently attempted to limit which projects can qualify, in part based on his hatred of wind farms. His administration said it will subject all wind and solar projects on federal land to strict approval by US interior secretary Doug Burgum, who has broadened that policy by directing staff to remove "favouritism toward unreliable energy" with a review of all policies for wind and solar.
