Lee Zeldin’s EPA Endangerment Finding Repeal: What it Means for Clean Air and the Climate

Trump’s EPA is throwing out a major tool that allows it to regulate harmful and costly pollution. The EPA Endangerment Finding repeal will make our air dirtier, our lives more expensive, and our planet less healthy. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and President Trump are behind this effort to enrich Big Polluters at our expense. Here’s what you need to know.

EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding shows greenhouse gas emissions are bad for public health based on decades of scientific evidence. Since it was enacted, it has provided legal and scientific support for rules that limit air pollution – specifically greenhouse gases – under the 1970 Clean Air Act.

By rescinding the Endangerment Finding, the Trump administration has effectively said they don’t believe greenhouse gas emissions and climate change don’t harm human health. But they do. Repealing it is all a part of their plan to give polluters free rein to dump as much pollution into our air and water as they want.

At its core, repealing the Endangerment Finding is a giveaway to polluting industries and extreme climate deniers. The oil and gas industries’ ultimate goal is to maximize profits. EPA is supposed to make sure they don’t harm our communities and environment in the process. Lee Zeldin and Donald Trump are giving these industries a free pass to pollute as much as they want and ignore their impact on our health and the price we pay for energy. 

This action fits into the administration’s larger plan to get rid of health and safety guidelines to benefit Big Polluters. It is the latest in a slew of anti-environmental, pro-polluter actions coming out of the Trump administration, including:

Repealing the Endangerment Finding would have major impacts for all of us, including:

Yes. Because of the repeal, EPA Administrator Zeldin was able to eliminate rules that limit pollution from cars, SUVs, and pickups. This would remove the requirement that automakers reduce tailpipe pollution, which they often do by making more fuel-efficient cars. That means the cost of driving would go up, as we’d need to buy more gas, more often. It also means vehicles would spew out more pollution, making our air dirtier and worsening health conditions like asthma. Rolling back vehicle pollution standards would disproportionately harm Black, Brown, and low-income communities who tend to live closer to highways.

The Endangerment Finding repeal is Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin’s core strike against climate protections. They’ve already proposed going after greenhouse gas emissions standards from power plants. Unfortunately, we know there is more to come.

Lee Zeldin and Trump have repealed the Endangerment Finding, so that’s it, right? Not quite.

Thanks to decades of science and court rulings supporting it, getting rid of the Endangerment Finding isn’t that simple. 

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that EPA has the authority and responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. In 2012, this ruling was upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court. In the years since, the negative impacts of greenhouse gas pollution on our health have become more and more obvious.

But MAGA Justices dominate the Supreme Court and Trump is quickly appointing more political extremists to federal judicial positions. Sadly, it’s fair to question whether these judges are more concerned with supporting President Trump’s agenda than following the laws and Constitution. And Trump himself has flat-out ignored the law and many court rulings that aren’t favorable to his agenda.

While the Endangerment Finding is on solid legal and scientific footing, that doesn’t mean much to an administration known to flout both the law and science. However, there are likely to be multiple lawsuits challenging the reversal.

We must work to hold Trump and Zeldin accountable for this blatant denial of climate science and the harm it will cause for our communities and climate. Contact your member of Congress today to urge them to hold President Trump and EPA administrator Zeldin accountable for repealing the Endangerment Finding.

And, check out our How to Help the Environment Series to learn about other ways to advocate for our environment and communities. First up: speaking truth to power – regulatory power, that is. Learn how you can speak out directly to federal agencies on their proposed rules and regulations by:

• submitting a public comment to the federal register in 2 easy steps.
• testifying on how proposed federal rules impact you in 3 easy steps.