EPA opens public comment period on repeal of climate regulation law
President Donald Trump’s administration this week proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule would rescind the 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The “endangerment finding” is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.
Repealing the finding “will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday.
“There are people who, in the name of climate change, are willing to bankrupt the country,” Zeldin said on the conservative “Ruthless” podcast. “They created this endangerment finding, and then they are able to put all these regulations on vehicles, on airplanes, on stationary sources, to basically regulate out of existence, in many cases, a lot of segments of our economy. And it cost Americans a lot of money.”
But Joe Goffman, the former Assistant Administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA under President Joe Biden, said that while Zeldin claims rolling back the Endangerment Finding would drive down costs, it will likely do the opposite.
“The car companies were making large investments in producing and marketing electric vehicles,” explained Goffman. “What the agency is trying to do here by taking these standards away is sort of pull the rug out from under those investments. And as a result, there are going to be fewer electric vehicles being sold, and that means that — whereas a year ago, consumers thought they could look forward to more — they’re now going to have less choice.”
Goffman also charges that it will drive up costs for consumers. His source? The EPA’s own regulatory impact analysis.
“Costs go up because it is more expensive to maintain an internal combustion engine than an EV and also because consumers remain at the mercy of gasoline prices,” he explained. “Unless you’re seeing a miraculously low, long-lasting reduction in the price of gasoline, it’s going to be more expensive to operate a new car if you don’t have the option of that car being an electric vehicle.”
The latest proposal from the EPA comes after California was dealt a devastating blow earlier this summer when Republicans in Congress revoked the state’s ability to set tougher emissions standards than those set by the federal government. Without a federal backstop, Goffman says air quality, particularly in Southern California, could deteriorate.
“Going all the way back to not President Ronald Reagan, but Gov. Ronald Reagan, California has been dealing with unusually bad air quality, particularly in Southern California,” he said. “The most recent program, which Congress just blocked, was not just a climate program. It was an air quality program as well. Because when you replace an internal combustion engine with an electric vehicle, or you require the internal combustion engine to operate more efficiently, you reduce pollutants across the board, not just greenhouse gases. And so that’s a really devastating problem for California.”
The EPA proposal must go through a lengthy review process, including public comment, before it is finalized, likely next year. The public comment window is open now through Sept. 15, 2025, and those wishing to contribute can do so via email, written letter, as well as through public hearings scheduled for Aug. 19 and 20, 2025. Those wishing to participate can click here for more information.
Environmental groups are likely to challenge the rule change in court.