{"id":302001,"date":"2025-07-29T19:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/302001\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T19:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:36:11","slug":"trump-moves-to-scrap-climate-rule-tying-greenhouse-gases-to-public-health-harm-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/302001\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump moves to scrap climate rule tying greenhouse gases to public health harm | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s administration<\/a> on Tuesday proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for US action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.<\/p>\n

The proposed Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> rule rescinds a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.<\/p>\n

The \u201cendangerment finding\u201d is the legal underpinning of a host of climate<\/a> regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.<\/p>\n

The EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, announced the proposed rule change on a podcast ahead of an official announcement set for Tuesday in Indiana.<\/p>\n

Repealing the endangerment finding \u201cwill be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America\u201d, Zeldin said on the Ruthless podcast.<\/p>\n

Zeldin called for a rewrite of the endangerment finding in March as part of a series of environmental rollbacks announced at the same time in what Zeldin said was \u201cthe greatest day of deregulation in American history\u201d. A total of 31 key environmental rules on topics from clean air to clean water and climate change would be rolled back or repealed under Zeldin\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

He singled out the endangerment finding as \u201cthe holy grail of the climate change religion\u201d and said he was thrilled to end it \u201cas the EPA does its part to usher in the Golden Age of American success\u201d.<\/p>\n

The EPA also called for rescinding limits on tailpipe emissions that were designed to encourage automakers to build and sell more electric vehicles<\/a>. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US.<\/p>\n

Three former EPA leaders have criticized Zeldin, saying his March proposal would endanger the lives of millions of Americans<\/a> and abandon the agency\u2019s dual mission to protect the environment and human health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s an endangerment finding to be found anywhere, it should be found on this administration because what they\u2019re doing is so contrary to what the Environmental Protection Agency is about,\u201d Christine Todd Whitman, who led EPA under the Republican president George W Bush, said after Zeldin\u2019s plan was made public.<\/p>\n

The EPA proposal follows an executive order from Trump that directed the agency to submit a report \u201con the legality and continuing applicability\u201d of the endangerment finding.<\/p>\n

Conservatives and some congressional Republicans hailed the initial plan, calling it a way to undo economically damaging rules to regulate greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n

But environmental groups, legal experts and Democrats said any attempt to repeal or roll back the endangerment finding would be an uphill task with slim chance of success. The finding came two years after a 2007 supreme court ruling holding that the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.<\/p>\n

David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said it was virtually \u201cimpossible to think that the EPA could develop a contradictory finding [to the 2009 standard] that would stand up in court\u201d.<\/p>\n

Doniger and other critics accused Trump\u2019s Republican administration of using potential repeal of the endangerment finding as a \u201ckill shot\u2019\u2019 that would allow him to make all climate regulations invalid. If finalized, repeal of the endangerment finding would erase current limits on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, factories, power plants and other sources and could prevent future administrations from proposing rules to tackle climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe endangerment finding is the legal foundation that underpins vital protections for millions of people from the severe threats of climate change, and the Clean Car and Truck Standards are among the most important and effective protections to address the largest US source of climate-causing pollution,\u201d said Peter Zalzal, associate vice-president of the Environmental Defense Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttacking these safeguards is manifestly inconsistent with EPA\u2019s responsibility to protect Americans\u2019 health and wellbeing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is callous, dangerous and a breach of our government\u2019s responsibility to protect the American people from this devastating pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s administration on Tuesday proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-302001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114938209408543554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}