EPA Nominees Face Senate Scrutiny for Climate Deregulation

Two Trump nominees to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's deregulatory efforts are expected to face questions at their Senate confirmation Wednesday about the agency's plans to gut the basis for greenhouse gas emission rules.

At issue is whether the agency intends to unwind the 2009 "endangerment finding," which cleared a path for regulating greenhouse gases under the U.S. Clean Air Act and formed the basis for numerous EPA climate rules, including on power plants and vehicle tailpipe emissions.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has recommended attempting to reverse the finding to the White House, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The EPA confirmed there was a recommendation, but did not disclose its details.

The Senate environment committee Wednesday will weigh the confirmation of Aaron Szabo to be the EPA's assistant administrator for Air and Radiation and David Fotouhi to be deputy administrator – two key roles that would lead any efforts to unwind the endangerment finding.

When Fotouhi served as EPA general counsel during the first Trump administration, the agency did not pursue reversal of the endangerment finding amid industry pushback.

Fotouhi and Szabo were not available for comment.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 2007 case, Massachusetts v. EPA, that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act and that EPA must issue a finding that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endanger public health and the environment.

The EPA under former President Barack Obama finalized the finding in 2009, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act – former President Joe Biden's signature climate law – codified language deeming greenhouse gases are air pollutants.

The Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade group, declined to comment on potential plans to roll back the endangerment finding but referred Reuters to a 2022 legal brief in which it said that the industry has "come to rely on EPA's authority" to regulate greenhouse gases.

The Alliance For Automotive Innovation said its members have not yet weighed in on whether the endangerment finding should be reversed, spokesperson Brian Weiss said.

Zeldin, a former New York Congressman, said in his Senate confirmation hearing the endangerment finding gives EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases, but that the agency isn't obligated to do so.