Trump Announces ‘Largest Deregulatory Action In American History’
After nearly 20 years, the climate policy responsible for a generation of greenhouse gas regulations has been repealed, President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Thursday.
The regulation, known as the Endangerment Finding, expanded the definition of harmful air pollutants to include greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, allowing the EPA to regulate them under the Clean Air Act. Zeldin said Thursday that the rule allowed EPA regulatory power beyond its congressional authority and announced that the Endangerment Finding is officially eliminated.
President Donald Trump described the action as the “largest deregulatory action in American history” on Thursday, joined by Zeldin at the White House. Zeldin noted that the endangerment finding has been referred to as the “holy grail of regulatory overreach” and that the Clean Air Act does not permit the regulations that former administrations have used it to enact. Trump added that the repeal is estimated to lower the average cost of a new vehicle by around $3,000.
“In this final rule, EPA is saving American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion, eliminating both the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding and all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond. The action also eliminates all off-cycle credits, including for the almost universally hated start-stop feature,” the EPA announced Thursday.
Several energy policy experts and agency insiders told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the 2009 Endangerment Finding was enacted by the Obama administration for political reasons, relied on “cherry-picked data” and its rescission ends years of regulatory overreach. Trump administration officials also touted consumer savings the repeal is expected to usher in. (Read more from “Trump Announces ‘Largest Deregulatory Action In American History’” HERE)
