Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin on Tuesday released the agency’s proposal to rescind what he has described as the “holy grail of the climate change religion,” which has led to over a trillion dollars in regulatory impact.
Zeldin made the announcement to repeal the Obama-era Endangerment Finding at an auto dealer in Indiana alongside U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Gov. Mike Braun (R-IN), Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, and American Trucking Association President and CEO Chris Spear.
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The EPA has said the Endangerment Finding has been used to justify over $1 trillion in regulations, including the Biden-Harris administration’s electric vehicle mandate. Scrapping the so-called Endangerment Finding would repeal all of the greenhouse emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines and give Americans consumer choice.
The Endangerment Finding created the legal basis for the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, believing that the emissions serve as an alleged threat to public health and welfare.
Zeldin explained in a Breitbart Fight Club Roundtable that the Endangerment Finding never made a “straight-line conclusion” that carbon dioxide from motor vehicle engines caused “endangerment.” He described this finding as the “holy grail of the climate change religion.”
He said in a written statement on Tuesday:
With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers. In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year. We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA’s GHG emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide which the Finding never assessed independently, was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods. If finalized, rescinding the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations would end $1 trillion or more in hidden taxes on American businesses and families. [Emphasis added]
An EPA press release stated that this proposal would eliminate onerous regulations that harm American businesses as well as “much hated” automobile features such as “start-stop” on most new cars.
Braun said in a statement:
The Obama-Biden EPA used regulations as a political tool and hurt American competitiveness without results to show for it. Today’s announcement is a win for consumer choice, common sense, and American energy independence. President Trump, Secretary Wright, and Administrator Zeldin are returning the EPA to its proper role, and I’m proud they chose Indiana as the place to make this announcement because our state is proof we can protect our environment and support American jobs.
“Over the last four years, conservative state attorneys general were the last line of defense in fighting back against the Biden administration’s federal overreach and green new scam agenda,” Rokita said. “However, thanks to President Trump and patriots like Administrator Zeldin and Secretary Wright, we are now on the front lines helping to unleash American energy.”
Spear explained how the electric truck mandate would have crippled the trucking industry:
We commend President Trump and EPA Administrator Zeldin for taking decisive action to rescind the disastrous GHG Phase 3 rule. This electric-truck mandate put the trucking industry on a path to economic ruin and would have crippled our supply chain, disrupted deliveries, and raised prices for American families and businesses. Moreover, it kicked innovation to the curb by discarding available technologies that can further drive down emissions at a fraction of the cost. For four decades, our industry has proven that we are committed to reducing emissions. The trucking industry supports cleaner, more efficient technologies, but we need policies rooted in real-world conditions. We thank the Trump Administration for returning us to a path of common sense, so that we can keep delivering for the American people as we continue to reduce our environmental impact.
Zeldin explained during the roundtable about the issues he has with the thinking behind the Obama-era Endangerment Finding:
What the endangerment finding found was that carbon dioxide, when mixed with five other well mixed gasses, which they call greenhouse gasses, that those six greenhouse gasses, some of them, by the way are not even emitted by vehicles, that they contribute to climate change. Not that they cause climate change, they say contribute to climate change. How much? They don’t say, but it’s more than zero. And then they say, this is the endangerment funding, they say that climate change endangers public health.
“They don’t say carbon dioxide equals pollutant. They don’t say carbon dioxide equals endangerment to public health,” he added.
For instance, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, the director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at the Heritage Foundation, has said the EPA regulations that arose from the Endangerment Finding have contributed to automobile prices rising from $23,000 in 2009 to nearly $50,000 now.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
