Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has moved to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding that the federal government uses to regulate tailpipe emissions from the nation’s vehicle fleet.
Mr. Zeldin, flanked by automotive and trucking industry representatives and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, said the Obama administration and Biden administration EPAs “twisted the law, ignored precedent and warped science,” in using the endangerment finding to flood the auto and truck industry with regulations, which caused price increases and narrowed consumer choice.
The draft proposal announced Tuesday would remove all greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks, including heavy-duty vehicles and engines, beginning with the 2010 and 2011 Obama-era regulations.
“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” Mr. Zeldin said.
If finalized, it would end the government’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle tailpipes and save businesses and individuals $1 trillion over the next 10 years, the EPA calculated.
The proposal will be open to public comments for 45 days and likely finalized by the end of the year, an administration official said.
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Environmental groups were quick to condemn the move, and some threatened to sue to stop it.
“The EPA’s move to rescind vehicle emission standards is a lose-lose proposition that threatens nearly half a million Americans employed in clean transportation,” said John Boesel, president of the California-based CALSTART, a group seeking to electrify all U.S. vehicles. “The technology to meet these standards is here and feasible and the transportation industry has been working and planning toward these goals. Our industrial progress must not be hindered.”
The recession would end stringent new tailpipe emission caps finalized under the Biden administration that aim to force automakers to shift from producing gas-powered models to primarily electric vehicles by 2030.
The Biden administration argued the caps were needed to significantly cut carbon emissions from America’s vehicles, which environmental groups say are the source of 28% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Car manufacturers have struggled to comply with increasingly strict tailpipe emissions caps. They’ve produced more EVs, but the cars have sat on dealer lots as consumers gravitated toward hybrids or less expensive and arguably more reliable gas-powered vehicles.
Mr. Zeldin made the announcement at an auto dealership in Indianapolis
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Trucking representatives celebrated the EPA’s announcement and said the emissions caps imposed during the Biden administration would be disastrous for the industry. Those regulations also aimed to electrify the nation’s fleet of heavy-duty trucks.
“This electric-truck mandate put the trucking industry on a path to economic ruin and would have crippled our supply chain, disrupted deliveries and raised prices for American families and businesses,” said American Trucking Association President and CEO Chris Spear.
Mr. Spear said the Biden mandate cast aside available advancements in technology that can reduce truck emissions at a fraction of the cost of converting to electric fleets.
“We need policies rooted in real-world conditions,” he said.
The 2009 endangerment finding was one of the crowning achievements of green energy groups who say fossil fuels are creating a climate crisis.
Former Vice President Al Gore weighed in on the EPA’s proposal to rescind the finding.
“Today’s EPA announcement ignores the blindingly obvious reality of the climate crisis and sidelines the EPA’s own scientists and lawyers in favor of the interests and profits of the fossil fuel industry,” he posted on X. “Weakening safeguards that reduce greenhouse gas pollution will harm American competitiveness in a global economy that is moving away from oil, gas, and coal and will increase the suffering of communities that are overburdened by the dirty co-pollutants caused by burning fossil fuels.”
Mr. Wright issued a report Tuesday providing an assessment of the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the U.S. climate. The assessment, compiled by a group of independent scientists, concluded that warming from carbon dioxide appears to be less damaging economically than commonly believed, “and aggressive mitigation strategies may be misdirected.”
The Energy Department will invite the public to comment on the report.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.