Environmental Protection Administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans to overturn the agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding” that declared greenhouse gases a threat to human health and welfare. This landmark reversal would undercut the regulatory foundation for the Biden administration’s sweeping climate agenda and represents a significant step toward reining in overreach by federal agencies that have long weaponized climate science to push costly, job-killing regulations.
On Tuesday, Zeldin moved to revoke a controversial 16-year-old ruling that labeled six greenhouse gases as a danger to public health, an Obama-era finding that’s been used to justify sweeping federal climate regulations. By targeting the so-called "endangerment finding," Zeldin is taking direct aim at the legal foundation behind aggressive government mandates on cars, power plants, and other industries—regulations that have burdened the economy under the guise of fighting climate change.
Zeldin described the endangerment finding as “the Holy Grail of the climate change religion,” celebrating its reversal as a major victory. He said he was proud to see the EPA “do its part to usher in a new Golden Age of American success,” free from burdensome climate mandates.
"There are people who, in the name of climate change, are willing to bankrupt the country,” Zeldin said. “They created this endangerment finding, and then they are able to put all these regulations on vehicles, on airplanes, on stationary sources, to basically regulate out of existence, in many cases, a lot of segments of our economy. And it cost Americans a lot of money.”
The EPA’s proposal faces a lengthy review process before it can be finalized, including a public comment period. It likely won’t be completed until sometime next year. Environmental groups are expected to push back and challenge the change in court.
This follows Zeldin’s call back in March to revise the endangerment finding as part of a sweeping package of environmental rollbacks, which he described as “the greatest day of deregulation in American history.” Under his proposal, 31 major environmental regulations, covering everything from clean air and water to climate change, would be repealed or significantly scaled back.
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