EPA to reconsider legal basis of U.S. climate change rules

(Bloomberg) – The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it will reconsider the Obama administration’s so-called endangerment finding, a move that could dismantle the legal foundation for sweeping climate change rules.

An overhaul of the 2009 determination that carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases threaten the public health could allow the agency to roll back regulations limiting pollution from power plants, automobiles, and oil wells. The EPA on Wednesday also moved to revise Biden-era power-plant rules. 

EPA Chief Lee Zeldin last month privately urged President Donald Trump to allow a rewrite of the endangerment finding after the president asked the agency to evaluate its “legality and continuing applicability.”

The success of an attack on the endangerment finding, which could take years and would face inevitable legal challenges, isn’t a forgone conclusion. The Supreme Court in 2007 affirmed the agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

The effort has divided the energy industry and even Trump allies who are concerned it take time and manpower from other regulatory priorities including rewriting Biden-era rules governing power plant and automobile pollution. 

Energy companies also have warned that doing away with the endangerment finding, and the federal climate regulations it supports, could revive public nuisance lawsuits against oil producers and power plant operators. Under a 2010 Supreme Court decision, federal climate regulation under the Clean Air Act has effectively precluded those claims.