The Trump administration is framing its decision to repeal the landmark legal finding that’s used for the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions—for everything from automobiles to power plants—as the “largest deregulatory action in American history.” And it is indeed a sizable policy shift—but the practical implications won’t change much for the shorter-term operations of the energy and auto sectors, legal experts and industry analysts from across the ideological spectrum said.
While rescinding the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 endangerment finding about climate change may help extend the lives of existing coal plants and of internal combustion engine vehicles, existing regulations largely remain intact as industries continue to move toward safer and cleaner technologies overall, they said. And nobody is building new coal-fired plants.
