EPA asks White House to bless rollback of 2009 CO2 endangerment finding

https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/07/epa-asks-white-house-to-bless-rollback-of-key-climate-finding-00432621

By: Alex Guillén

Excerpt:

At issue is the agency’s 2009 declaration that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare — a bedrock of federal climate regulations.
The EPA’s proposal to reconsider its 16-year-old bedrock finding on the dangers of greenhouse gases is now in the White House’s hands — a move that sets the stage for a broad attack on a wide range of federal climate regulations.

Details on the proposal are still unclear, but it is expected to significantly weaken — if not revoke outright — the agency’s 2009 declaration that greenhouse gases endanger human health. That in turn would free EPA from the legal obligation to regulate climate pollution from most sources, including power plants, cars and trucks, and virtually any other source.

The EPA submitted its proposal (Reg. 2060-AW71) to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review on Monday, according to the agency’s website.

The rule is styled as “Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Reconsideration Rule” — indicating it may revoke the agency’s tailpipe emissions standards for vehicles at the same time it undoes the endangerment finding. That would free automakers from having to comply with Biden-era rules that Republicans have argued amounted to a de facto electric vehicle mandate. Restoring auto industry jobs through deregulation is a main pillar of Administrator Lee Zeldin’s EPA agenda.

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