Today Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced 31 deregulatory actions it was undertaking to reduce the burden of environmental regulations on the American economy. Many of the announced actions represent efforts to reconsider Biden Administration policies and adopt less burdensome alternatives. "Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more," Zeldin said in the EPA's release.
One of the more significant actions Zeldin announced is also the most foolish: Reconsidering the EPA's "endangerment finding" with regard to greenhouse gas emissions. Focusing on this finding is understandable, as this finding is what triggers GHG regulation under the Clean Air Act. Yet given the relevant statutory language, trying to undo this finding is a fool's errand that threatens to divert limited agency resources and staffing away from the other announced initiatives.
Under various provisions of the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to regulate any emissions that "cause, or contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare." In Massachusetts v. EPA, greenhouse gases are air pollutants under some of the Act's provisions, so whether they must be regulated turns on whether GHG emissions "may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare." This is not a high threshold to meet, and it is one that GHG emissions easily satisfy (something the EPA has, in effect, conceded for decades).
