Zeldin’s Bombshell Puts EPA Endangerment Finding In The Crosshairs

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, acting on authorization from President Donald Trump on Wednesday, rolled out bombshell plans Wednesday for what would become the largest revamp of federal climate and energy regulations in U.S. history. Armed with Trump’s Day 1 executive order to conduct a review of “the legality and continuing applicability" of the Obama EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding related to greenhouse gases, Zeldin announced what he called “31 historic actions” which would, if successful, completely revamp the agency’s approach to imposing its will under the Clean Air Act.

“Our actions include the Biden administration’s deeply flawed Clean Power Plan 2.0, Mercury and Air Toxic Standards, Quad-O BC, Particulate Matter 2.5, light, medium, and heavy car and truck rules, neeshaps, and the so-called social cost of carbon,” Zeldin said in a video released as part of the agency’s rollout. “Among many other actions, today’s momentous day also includes the 2009 endangerment finding, along with all actions that rely on it,” he added.

The national and global impacts stemming from EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding are impossible to overstate. Enabled by the 2007 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court in the Massachusetts v. EPA case allowing the agency to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants in the context of the Clean Air Act, the endangerment finding has served as the foundation for a massive expansion of EPA authority, enabling it to impose its will into most aspects of American life. The finding also provided the driving rationale for the U.S. to sign onto the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, which in turn has driven the global effort to invoke a forced energy transition with trillions of dollars in government subsidies.