When Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1970, climate change wasn’t on anyone’s mind. Yet under an Obama-era decision known as the “Endangerment Finding,” the Environmental Protection Agency has claimed authority under the act to micromanage large parts of the American economy in the name of combating global warming.
A new Trump administration proposal to reverse the Endangerment Finding returns the Clean Air Act to its original purpose, marking the end of a failed effort to control the climate through executive fiat.
The Endangerment Finding stemmed from the 2007 Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. EPA, which required the EPA to determine whether carbon dioxide qualified as a dangerous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act. In dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts warned that the decision “ignores the complexities” of addressing global warming through the statute—but suggested its effects “may be more symbolic than anything else.” He couldn’t have been more wrong.
In his first year in office, President Obama recognized the limits of the Clean Air Act and sought to push a bipartisan climate bill through Congress. But when lawmakers failed to act on his terms, he turned to executive authority. In 2009, in response to Massachusetts, the EPA declared that six greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, endangered public health and welfare and therefore required regulation.
Unfortunately, the structure of the Clean Air Act is not conducive to regulating CO2. This is partly because the act is designed to regulate industry. Yet CO2 is not just emitted by factories and cars but by every human, frog, parakeet, and muskrat, among other animals. The act required federal permits for any source that emitted more than 100 tons per year of an air pollutant. By this measure, some families would need permits just for breathing.
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Author: Ruth King
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