Longstanding EPA Climate Change rule revoked by President Trump
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called it “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach,” a scientific finding used in the action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
On Thursday, the Trump administration revoked the finding, a move considered to be the most aggressive by the President in rolling back climate regulations. The rule was finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 and the President rescinded the order which determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatening public health and welfare.
It was considered a finding by the Obama administration that was a legal underpinning of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.
President Trump said it was the “single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far.” He referred to the finding as “one of the greatest scams in history” and said it “had no basis in fact” or law.
Environmental groups argued otherwise, saying what Trump did was the single biggest attack in U.S. history against federal authority in addressing climate change.
The President’s order means the EPA will create a two-year delay to a Biden-era rule restricting greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks. In addition, the agency will bring an end to tax credits for carmakers who install automatic start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles. Zeldin said “everyone hates” the systems which were created to reduce emissions.
In announcing the rescinding of the rule, Zeldin was critical of Democratic administrations and accused them of being “willing to bankrupt the country” in the name of tackling climate change. He said it “led to trillions of dollars in regulations that strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including the American auto industry,” adding, “The Obama and Biden administrations used it to steamroll into existence a left-wing wish list of costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates and other requirements that assaulted consumer choice and affordability.”
Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford was also a critic of the rule, joining others in 2022 in the introduction of the Transparency and Honesty in Energy Regulations Act, a bill to prohibit the federal government from using the flawed social cost of carbon, social cost of methane, social cost of nitrous oxide, or the social cost of any other greenhouse gas metrics in the rulemaking process.
“Oklahomans want clean air, land, and water. But the ‘social cost of carbon’ was created without transparency for the public or the industries it impacts. It has no basis in reality,” said Lankford. “The social cost of carbon has a big impact on every Oklahoma family and their pocketbook since it is used to justify many parts of Democrats’ illegitimate, progressive climate-change scheme that increases the cost of gasoline, electricity, and other goods. The Supreme Court recently determined in West Virginia v. EPA that the EPA may not cap greenhouse gas emissions because Congress did not provide the agency with that authority. In the same way, the social cost of carbon metric is clearly outside the scope of EPA’s regulatory authority, and our bill ensures they stop using it.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin was also a strong critic of the EPA rule and how it was used. Two years ago, he fought the agency.
“The Biden administration’s sweeping effort to close power plants across the country is jeopardizing dispatchable generation, ignoring site specific conditions and risk, and superseding congressional intent,” said Sen. Mullin. “Once again, the Biden EPA is imposing one-size-fits-all rules that are ineffective and costly to the American taxpayer. This overreach only further contributes to our grid’s increasing vulnerability to disruptions, especially during emergencies. Unfortunately, these rules are made under the guise of “climate change” yet are more harmful to the environment than existing law when sites that have already been deemed safe to human health and the environment will have to be drug across the country for relocation,” Sen. Mullin continued. “There is no world where the EPA should have the ability to sidestep state-run sites complying with congressional intent. I want to thank my colleagues for joining me on this effort, and I look forward to challenging the EPA on yet another abuse of authority.”
Mullin also fought how the EPA two years ago based on the rule on EV mandates and what he called “burdensome” Clean Air Act Waivers.
“The radical Lefts’ Green New Deal agenda holds no regard for the majority of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet,” said Sen. Mullin.