Greenhouse gases: Trump administration to reverse historic climate policy decision

A major setback for the climate. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday, July 29, that it intends to reverse a fundamental decision that has served as the foundation for the fight against greenhouse gas emissions in the United States since 2009. The goal: deregulation to satisfy car manufacturers .

Specifically, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it intends to reverse a decision recognizing the dangers of greenhouse gas emissions to human health. This will allow it to revise vehicle exhaust emission standards, thereby removing the legal basis for greenhouse gas regulations across all sectors.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a Trump appointee, announced the measure at an event at a truck plant in Indiana alongside Energy Secretary Chris Wright. "If finalized, today's announcement would be the largest deregulatory measure in American history," he said.

Lee Zeldin said a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that limited the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they enforce—known as the Chevron Doctrine—means the EPA lacks the authority to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions. “We don’t have the authority to decide for ourselves, as an agency, that we’re going to address global climate change, because we give ourselves that authority,” he said.

He added that if Congress decided to amend the federal Clean Air Act to explicitly state that the United States must regulate carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases, then the EPA would comply.

Earlier Tuesday, Lee Zeldin announced on the Ruthless podcast that the landmark decision would be reversed. He said it would save Americans money and end two decades of regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases from cars, power plants, oil production, and other sources.

In 2009, under the Democratic presidency of Barack Obama, the EPA issued this conclusion that emissions from new motor vehicles contributed to pollution and endangered public health and welfare . This conclusion was upheld by several legal challenges and served as the basis for subsequent greenhouse gas regulations.

"On the issue of endangerment, they'll say carbon dioxide is a pollutant, period. They'll never acknowledge any benefit or necessity of carbon dioxide," Lee Zeldin argues on the podcast. He adds, "It's important to emphasize, and they don't, its importance to the planet."

Reuters reported last week that the EPA plans to repeal all greenhouse gas emission standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles and engines in the coming days after removing the scientific findings that justified the rules, according to a summary.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, ruled that the EPA had the authority under the Clear Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and required the agency to make a scientific finding to determine whether they endanger public health. This decision is expected to trigger a series of legal challenges, according to several environmental groups and lawyers.