By Kate Yandell
ANALYSIS — The Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings this week on its effort to undo the legal foundation for its regulation of greenhouse gases, the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change. In a major policy shift announced in late July, the Trump administration EPA said it would rescind the so-called “endangerment finding,” which allows the agency to regulate such emissions, arguing that legal and scientific developments justify a reconsideration. At the same time, the EPA has proposed to undo limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
The endangerment finding, which the EPA issued in 2009 under President Barack Obama, affirmed a well-established scientific finding: that current and future amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” In a related finding, the Obama EPA asserted that greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles contribute to these harms.
