So, like, have you guys heard about Trump’s EPA trying to revoke this super important thing called the endangerment finding? It’s like, the foundation of all these climate regulations, and nobody really knows how they plan to do it. But, get this, they might be dropping hints about their strategy right in front of our faces. It’s been a month since EPA announced a bunch of deregulatory actions in one shot, and experts are saying they might be trying to shake things up without directly attacking the whole greenhouse gases cause global warming thing.
Instead of going head-on and questioning the overwhelming evidence, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and his crew could be taking a different route. They might start asking if certain sectors, or even the whole country, actually contribute enough climate pollution on a global scale to even need regulations. And they might try to redefine how air pollution affects the public, which is crucial for regulating those pesky greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
Not really sure why this matters, but some dude named Jeff Holmstead, who used to be EPA’s air chief back in the Bush days, thinks they have a game plan. He’s like, “They seem to have an idea of how they want to go about revoking the finding.” So, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what they come up with.
If they manage to ditch the endangerment finding, the Trump administration could basically wipe out all the U.S. climate rules in one go. That way, they can avoid spending ages crafting weaker replacement rules. And it would make it a lot harder for future presidents to regulate other sectors contributing to climate change, since they’d have to bring back the scientific finding first.
But listen to this, experts are seeing clues in this super detailed press release from EPA last month. They’re calling it “very telling.” It looks like the administration might be focusing on the costs of regulations on energy and stuff that affects our daily lives, instead of going after the science stuff. That way, they can skip the whole process of finding scientists who disagree and just push through their own version of the facts.
EPA hasn’t said anything about this whole thing, but Zeldin spilled some tea at a press conference last week. He mentioned they’re planning to go through a formal rulemaking process with public comment. So, I guess they’re not just gonna drop the endangerment finding with an executive order like they did with the showerhead rules. But they could still speed things up to get it done sooner rather than later.
Some dude named Michael McKenna, who worked on Trump’s transition team a while back, thinks this has been in the works for over 15 years. They’ve been cooking up some ideas on how to tweak the endangerment finding since Obama’s time. So, it’s not like they’re just winging it or anything.
The 2009 finding basically says greenhouse gases are bad news for public health and that they come from stuff like cars and power plants. And that’s why we have all these regulations. But some conservative folks think they can poke holes in Obama’s claims without dissing the whole climate change thing.
They might start arguing that different economic sectors in the U.S. don’t really contribute enough to global warming to need regulations. Or they could say each sector needs its own check before we start clamping down. Either way, it sounds like they’re trying to find loopholes to avoid regulating certain industries.
But not everyone’s on board with that. Some other dude, Joe Goffman, who used to work at EPA, thinks focusing on just a few sources won’t really solve the problem. I mean, it’s not like one little piece of the puzzle can fix the whole thing, right?
So, it looks like EPA is gearing up for a showdown over the endangerment finding. They’re talking about costs, benefits, and all that jazz. But at the end of the day, it’s really about whether or not they believe in the science behind climate change. And that’s a whole different can of worms.
But hey, who knows what’s gonna happen next? It’s like a soap opera, but with more politics and less drama. Just gotta sit back and see how this all plays out.
