The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to rescind an Obama-era environmental finding impacting the automobile industry. The EPA chief says it costs $1 trillion in regulations.
Lee Zeldin, administrator of the EPA, made the announcement Tuesday in the backdrop of an auto dealership in Indianapolis, Ind., to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which the Trump EPA claims is responsible for the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate — pushing to reduce the production of gas-powered vehicles.
Zeldin’s EPA argues that if the proposal is finalized, it will lead to the repeal of all “resulting greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines,” resulting in consumer choice and affordability. The agency adds that it will save over $54 billion a year.
The EPA says the 2009 Endangerment Finding became a “legal prerequisite” to “regulate emissions from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines.”
In support of the proposal, the agency cites new scientific data that challenges “the assumptions behind the 2009 Endangerment Finding.”
The EPA chief contends the Obama and Biden administrations used “warped science” to cram through new emission standards.
“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,” said Zeldin. “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.”
Former vice president and environmental activist Al Gore claims the move ignores the “reality” of climate change.
“Today’s EPA announcement ignores the blindingly obvious reality of the climate crisis and sidelines the EPA’s own scientists and lawyers in favor of the interests and profits of the fossil fuel industry. Weakening safeguards that reduce greenhouse gas pollution will harm American competitiveness in a global economy that is moving away from oil, gas, and coal and will increase the suffering of communities that are overburdened by the dirty co-pollutants caused by burning fossil fuels,” Gore posted on X.
However, Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Association, commended the proposal, saying the Obama-era finding threatens the trucking industry.
“We commend President Trump and EPA Administrator Zeldin for taking decisive action to rescind the disastrous GHG Phase 3 rule. This electric-truck mandate put the trucking industry on a path to economic ruin and would have crippled our supply chain, disrupted deliveries, and raised prices for American families and businesses. Moreover, it kicked innovation to the curb by discarding available technologies that can further drive down emissions at a fraction of the cost. For four decades, our industry has proven that we are committed to reducing emissions. The trucking industry supports cleaner, more efficient technologies, but we need policies rooted in real-world conditions,” said Spear.
