EPA Proposes to Withdraw Climate Regulations
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put forward a proposal to eliminate what former President Trump referred to as a “climate hoax.” If this plan is successful, the federal government would essentially step back from managing climate control without needing to revisit the issue unless Congress gives permission.
In a recent suggestion, the Trump administration has moved to rescind the 2009 Obama-era EPA regulations that were described as based on “dangerous discoveries.” The Obama administration argued that greenhouse gas emissions could pose risks to human health by contributing to global warming. Concurrently, the Department of Energy under Trump has issued a scientific report claiming that these emissions may not be as harmful as previously thought.
However, the EPA initially lacked explicit authority from Congress to manage greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, thus no scientific backing was necessary for their proposed changes. The ongoing debate surrounding the EPA’s power to regulate emissions prompted the 2007 Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. EPA. The court ruled in a narrow 5-4 decision that the EPA could regulate emissions, but it wasn’t deemed essential.
This ruling sparked considerable debate. John Dinger, a prominent Democrat and co-author of the Clean Air Act, noted that the Bush administration chose not to regulate emissions following the ruling. When Obama took office in 2009, he overturned that decision and used the danger discovery as a basis for regulating emissions from vehicles and power plants.
Many questioned the scientific validity of the Obama administration’s approach; however, gaining judicial hearings on science-related issues proved nearly impossible. Federal judges, for years now, have generally avoided making decisions on regulatory science.
The subsequent administrations, both Obama and Biden, enacted regulations on greenhouse gas emissions on the grounds of established dangers.
But in 2014, cracks appeared in the EPA’s ability to use danger detection for regulation. The Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Air Act did not permit risk detection for regulating emissions from industrial sources. Then, in 2022, a Supreme Court decision in West Virginia vs. EPA reversed attempts to manage power plant emissions, emphasizing that major regulations cannot be enacted without Congressional approval for the EPA.
Currently, the remainder of the EPA’s risk-based rules primarily concerns tailpipe emissions, which the Biden administration is managing. The Trump administration is now trying to reverse those rules.
Electricity costs have surged since the Obama administration’s regulations began. Under Biden, gas prices and inflation have also soared, leading to significant job losses in the coal industry and hardship in affected communities.
The reliability of our electrical grids has suffered due to increased reliance on heavily subsidized wind and solar power. As we experience peak demand periods, such as during extreme weather, warnings of blackouts and brownouts have become more frequent. This situation is likely to worsen with ongoing energy demands from AI data centers and the reindustrialization push happening in the U.S.
It’s expected that climate advocates will likely challenge the Trump EPA’s withdrawal of these regulations in court. However, this could ultimately lead to a Supreme Court review that may overturn earlier decisions from the Massachusetts v. EPA case. Some are eager for that outcome.
