Q&A on the Trump EPA’s Effort to Curtail Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings this week on its effort to undo the legal foundation for its regulation of greenhouse gases, the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change. In a major policy shift announced in late July, the Trump administration EPA said it would rescind the so-called “endangerment finding,” which allows the agency to regulate such emissions, arguing that legal and scientific developments justify a reconsideration. At the same time, the EPA has proposed to undo limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

The endangerment finding, which the EPA issued in 2009 under President Barack Obama, affirmed a well-established scientific finding: that current and future amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” In a related finding, the Obama EPA asserted that greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles contribute to these harms.