This will surely have an impact on future renewable energy development in the US.
From the link: The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule would rescind a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The “endangerment finding” is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.
Repealing the finding “will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday.
The action is expected to be challenged in court. It may take years to resolve the legal issues. And maybe Congress will take action and clarify its intent.
That is what should have happened years ago. If climate change, related to the rising CO2 concentration, is really so important, if it is really an existential danger, then Congress should pass a law with a plan of what to do about it. That’s the way things are supposed to work with our constitution. Congress passes laws, and then the executive branch implements those laws. If the law is vague or contradictory, then the courts get involved to interpret the meaning of what is written down in the statutes.
This was made clear last year, when the Supreme Court struck down the Chevron Deference policy. That ruling took power away from the regulatory agencies, and returned that power to the courts and Congress, for them to decide what the law says and what should be.
I think we know the President is not a believer in global warming or greenhouse gases. No surprise that he will do his best to shut down all that “useless” spending. There will be opposition. Will he get away with it?
Upon further research, it appears the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 did, in fact, specifically identify CO2 as a pollutant. This might make it more difficult for the EPA to now simply rescind the endangerment finding of 2009. Some information at the following, but obviously this will be fought in the courts, as pauleckler says…
From the link: Often overlooked in favor of flashier tax credits, the IRA also contains new language about carbon dioxide. It specifically addresses the Supreme Court’s justification that Congress never granted EPA the broad authority to shift America away from burning fossil fuels. The new language, as reported by The New York Times, defines carbon dioxide as a pollutant. That gives the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
But also… The IRA does not solve the climate crisis or reduce emissions directly. The IRA doesn’t include any actual regulations restricting carbon emissions. By itself, nothing at all will change. But what is does is lay the legal groundwork enabling the EPA to take action. With the IRA language to fall back on, the EPA can reasonably expect to block future legal challenges to any action it takes to regulate CO2 and encourage sustainable energy.
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I guess we are in a situation where the EPA doesn’t want to regulate CO2 as a pollutant, even though Congress, through the IRA, specifically identified CO2 as such.