EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Making Heads Explode by Repealing Obama Era Climate Policy

Global warming. Global cooling. Climate change. Clean air regulations. CO2. Climate regulations. Global climate fight.

Most people just call it weather – atmospheric conditions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is proposing the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States, by repealing the 2009 Obama EPA “Endangerment Finding,” the central basis for much of the U.S.’s climate policy, which directed all the greenhouse gas regulations on vehicles that followed, and the much despised start/stop feature.

The Endangerment Finding, is a finding under the Clean Air Act that claims greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.

The regulation has been used to justify over $1 trillion in regulations, including the Biden-Harris Administration’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate.

Professional climate change charlatans claim:

“The action would mean full-blown warfare against all things climate.”

“It is obvious, of course, that greenhouse gases emitted from sources regulated by the Clean Air Act endanger public health and welfare.  The science could not be clearer that greenhouse gas emissions have already led the earth to warm — so much so that it now appears we have breached the 1.5 C limit the global community committed to in the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015. We are seeing the effects of climate change on the ground and across the globe in the form of hotter temperatures, more frequent drought, more intense flooding, fiercer hurricanes, and more intense wildfires.”

Zeldin said “we will claim no statutory authority beyond the plain language of the law, and we will heed the calls of Americans demanding relief from extreme economic pain.”

“In what would amount to one of the largest deregulatory actions in the history of the United States, the Trump EPA is proposing to rescind the 2009 Obama EPA Endangerment Finding which has been used to foolishly inflict over $1 TRILLION in economic pain on the American people,” Zeldin posted to X.

In May California Governor Gavin Newsom claimed that greenhouse gas emissions are down in California – not just down but “down 20% since 2000.” 

“Pollution is down and the economy is up,” Newsom said. “Greenhouse gas emissions in California are down 20% since 2000 – even as the state’s GDP increased 78% in that same time period,” Newsom says, in a press statement bragging that the “State invests nearly $33 billion in cap-and-trade dollars to make communities cleaner and healthier.”

Newsom gets this groundbreaking information from none other than the California Air Resources Board – a highly partisan board made up of Newsom appointees. And now the governor wants to extend the shady cap-and-trade program out beyond 2030 to reach the 2045 goals. The grift never ends in Newsomworld.

As the Globe has been pointing out for many years, California already surpassed its original greenhouse gas emissions reductions target of 1990 levels of  by 2020 – this was achieved in 2016 – even the Governor’s Climate Dashboard website admits this:

“The 2006 California Global Warming Solutions Act (Assembly Bill 32) set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. California surpassed this target four years early in 2016, and emissions have continued to drop since then, largely due to increasing technology. California’s next climate target is to reduce emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The Scoping Plan lays out how California will achieve this target.”

This is why California Democrats have to keep moving the goals – we already are a clean state, with some of the cleanest air in the world.

Fortunately, EPA Administrator Zeldin is on to this climate grift.

Zelding continued:

If finalized, the proposal would repeal all resulting greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines, thereby reinstating consumer choice and giving Americans the ability to purchase a safe and affordable car for their family while decreasing the cost of living on all products that trucks deliver. Administrator Zeldin was joined by U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Indiana Governor Mike Braun, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, U.S. Representative Jim Baird (R-IN-04), Indiana Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources Suzanne Jaworowski, and the Indiana Motor Truck Association.

Since the 2009 Endangerment Finding was issued, many have stated that the American people and auto manufacturing have suffered from significant uncertainties and massive costs related to general regulations of greenhouse gases from vehicles and trucks. Finally, EPA is proposing to provide much needed certainty and regulatory relief, so companies can plan appropriately, and the American people can have affordable choices when deciding to buy a car.

“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” said EPA Administrator Zeldin. “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.”

“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, America is returning to free and open dialogue around climate and energy policy – driving the focus back to following the data,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “Today’s announcement is a monumental step toward returning to commonsense policies that expand access to affordable, reliable, secure energy and improve quality of life for all Americans.”

The left doesn’t even try to hide their schemes any longer:

“The endangerment finding didn’t just lead to greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks. The word ‘endangerment’ is used in other sections of the Clean Air Act too, and, of course, greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Act.  That means that almost all of EPA’s major regulations to cut greenhouse gases are issued under the CAA, including regulations to cut emissions from power plants and to regulate methane from oil and gas operations in addition to rules regulating emissions from light duty vehicles (cars and SUVs) and medium and heavy duty trucks.”

They lament:

“If the Administration were to reverse the endangerment finding, greenhouse gases would no longer need to be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Presumably, EPA would then simply move to revoke all of Biden’s major climate rules regulating cars, trucks, power plants, and oil and gas operations.”

Yep. That’s the plan.