The Environmental Protection Agency appears to be trying to end the landmark 2009 scientific finding on greenhouse gas emissions that allows the agency to regulate the gases based on threats posed to public health and welfare.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin last week made a recommendation to allow it to challenge the finding, Politico reported Wednesday, quoting three sources who were granted anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
The recommendation was presented with input from Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and other officials and presented to the White House Office of Management and Budget, per President Donald Trump's first-day executive order on energy.
There would likely be legal challenges to scrapping the endangerment finding, which is the prerequisite for the regulation of six greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere and include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and synthetic fluorinated gases.
If the ruling is removed, the EPA would no longer regulate climate pollution from fossil fuel power plants, oil and gas infrastructure, and motor vehicles.
Future administrations would also have difficulty in enforcing climate rules if the current ruling is scrapped.
The EPA also considered rolling back the endangerment finding during Trump's first term but decided not to pursue the action because of the potential of facing legal risks.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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