Trump administration undermines EPA enforcement of Clean Air Act
Source: TechCrunch
Image Credits: mheim3011/iStock / Getty Images
EPA’s Endangerment Finding Repealed
After months of telegraphing the move, the Trump administration officially repealed the EPA’s 2009 “endangerment finding,” which had concluded that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane pose a threat to human health and welfare.
The finding had underpinned the agency’s regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. While the new rule currently targets only car and truck tailpipe emissions, it is expected to be the first of several similar rollbacks affecting federal air‑pollution regulations.
Background
- The original endangerment finding required two years of work before it was finalized.
- Repealing it now will trigger a lengthy administrative process before the change becomes fully effective.
Expected Impact
- According to Axios, the move by EPA administrator Lee Zeldin will slow the decline in emissions by about 10 %.
- The slowdown is notable but insufficient to reverse the overall downward trend, partly because cheap renewables have dominated new electricity‑generation capacity in recent years.
Industry and Environmental Reaction
“This action will only lead to more pollution, and that will lead to higher costs and real harms for American families,”
— Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, in a statement to TechCrunch.