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President Trump announced on Thursday that his administration is moving to revoke an Obama-era policy that moved to demonize six greenhouse gases identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Clean Air Act – an action that resulted in years of climate-based policies.
“I’m pleased to be joined today by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin…to announce the single largest deregulatory action in American history,” President Trump said at the White House. “…Under the process just completed by the EPA, we are officially terminating the so-called Endangerment Finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers.”
He slammed the Obama-era EPA for designating “fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and other things that actually make factories rock and roll…as a threat to health and human welfare.”
“This action will eliminate over $1.3 trillion of regulatory cost and help bring car prices tumbling down dramatically,” the president said of nixing the climate-fueled policy.
According to Stanford University, the endangerment finding identified six major greenhouse gases as a “danger” under the CAA: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride.
In Stanford’s analysis, it cited an earlier 2007 Supreme Court case that found greenhouse gases qualify as pollutants, prompting the EPA to assess their potential toxicity. This determination led to the now-infamous endangerment finding, which significantly influenced EPA policy and regulations.
The president said that the regulatory actions based on the endangerment finding “had no basis in fact” or “basis in law.”
He argued that fossil fuels have “saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty.”
President Trump said the endangerment finding was used to impose the “start-stop” feature on American automobiles and to push the now-defunct electric vehicle mandate, supported by Joe Biden’s administration. “These crippling restrictions were a major factor in driving up car prices to unprecedented levels,” the president remarked.
Revoking the endangerment finding-based EPA guidelines essentially changes the way that the agency approaches its regulatory demands when it comes to greenhouse gases or issues of environmental consciousness.
“With today’s announcement, American families will save over $2,400 for a new vehicle,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said on Thursday.
He said that all greenhouse gas regulations at the EPA that were created following the endangerment findings were being eliminated. “There will be no more climate participation trophies awarded to manufacturers for making Americans’ cars die at every red light and stop sign. It’s over. Done. Finished,” he said, referring to the start-stop switch in new cars, sometimes called an “Obama Switch.”
