E.P.A. Plans to Revoke the Legal Basis for Tackling Climate Change
Speaking on a conservative podcast called 'Ruthless,' Mr. Zeldin said the E.P.A. planned to rescind the 2009 declaration, known as the 'endangerment finding,' which concluded that planet-warming greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. The Obama and Biden administrations used that determination to set strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants and other industrial sources of pollution.
'Repealing it will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America,' Mr. Zeldin said. He said the finding and the regulations that stemmed from it 'cost Americans a lot of money.'
The formal announcement will come on Tuesday at a truck dealership in Indianapolis, according to a public schedule issued by the Indiana Governor, Mike Braun, who is expected to participate.
Molly Vaseliou, Mr. Zeldin's spokeswoman, did not respond to requests for comment.
Without the endangerment finding, the E.P.A. would be left with no authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions that are accumulating in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, leading to rising seas, fiercer storms, more deadly heat waves and other extreme weather events.
The proposal would be President Trump's most significant step yet to derail federal climate efforts. It marks a notable shift in the administration's position from one that had downplayed the threat of global warming to one that essentially flatly denies the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change.
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