EPA to review landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health
The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it would “formally reconsider” the agency’s landmark 2009 discovery that greenhouse gases are at risk for public health.
The news is one of a series of actions by the EPA to make a large number of environmental regulations, including rules regarding coal-fired power plants and electric vehicle pollution. The EPA announcement also includes narrowing the definition of wetlands and streams protected under the Clean Water Act.
These decisions began an effort that could take years to repeal or modify dozens of environmental rules, with 31 specifying all environmental rules involved, including:
- Emissions of wastewater and gas extraction facilities
- Oil and gas industry passes greenhouse gas plan report
- Rules for managing coal ash and coal-fired power plants
- National air quality substance standard
- Emission standards for industrial air pollutants
- Rules to reduce air pollution that causes haze
- Regulations that limit vehicle emissions
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in a copy on-ed In the Wall Street Journal. “Today is the most important day in American history,” the EPA chief wrote in the article.
The EPA’s “Hazard Discovery” has found a long-term basis for action with climate change effects, discovering that the planet’s warm greenhouse gases can harm dangerous public health and welfare. The Obama-era ruling under the Clean Air Act is a legal argument for a range of climate regulations targeting vehicles and other sources of pollution.
“After 16 years, the EPA will formally reconsider the hazard discovery,” Selding said in a statement Wednesday. “The Trump administration will not sacrifice the prosperity of the country, energy security and people’s freedom to promote the agenda of our industry, liquidity and consumer choice while benefiting opponents overseas.”
EPA is also moving Eliminate all positions The agency focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion, and environmental justice. Zeldin said in a March 11 memorandum that the lawsuit was in response to Mr. Trump’s executive order to “end radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferences” and two other executive actions.
Experts in climate change immediately criticized the widespread move to combat environmental protection and suggested that the effort would face legal challenges.
“In the face of overwhelming science, it is impossible to think that the EPA can develop contradictory discoveries that will stand up in court,” said David Doniger, a climate expert at the environmental group National Defense Council.
Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, refuted the EPA’s actions “just the latest form of Republican climate denial. They can no longer deny that climate change is happening, so even though they pretend it is not a threat, even though it is the biggest threat we face, they are also the biggest threat.”
Contributed to this report.
