The Trump administration will propose the repeal of a landmark 2009 determination that climate change poses a danger to the public, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said Wednesday.
“EPA has sent to the Office of Management and Budget a proposed rule to repeal the 2009 endangerment finding from the Obama EPA,” Zeldin told Newsmax.
“Through the endangerment finding, there has been into the trillions worth of regulations, including tailpipe emissions and including electric vehicle mandates,” he added.
In 2009, then-President Obama’s administration made a formal determination that greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane posed a threat to public health. It found emissions from vehicles contributed to the problem.
The finding provided a legal basis for EPA regulations on these planet-heating gases, including for its rules requiring automakers’ to cut emissions from their vehicle fleets.
While these rules did not explicitly mandate a pivot to electric vehicles, standards issued by the Biden administration were expected to push the vehicle market toward more electric cars in the years ahead.
The EPA’s plans to propose a rule to repeal the finding were first reported by The New York Times.
Updated at 5:36 p.m. EDT
