EPA to review landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health
March 12, 2025
2,501
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday said it would “formally reconsider” a landmark 2009 finding by the agency that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health.
The announcement was one of a flurry of actions by the EPA to roll back environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants and electric vehicles.
“We are driving a dagger through the heart of the climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
Long a basis for U.S. action to fight climate change, the EPA’s “endangerment finding” found that planet-warming greenhouse gasses endanger public health and welfare. The Obama-era determination under the Clean Air Act underlies the legal arguments for a slew of climate regulations for vehicles and other sources of pollution.
“After 16 years, EPA will formally reconsider the Endangerment Finding,” Zeldin said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Trump Administration will not sacrifice national prosperity, energy security, and the freedom of our people for an agenda that throttles our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choice while benefiting adversaries overseas.”
Environmentalists immediately criticized the policy shift and suggested it will face legal challenges.
“In the face of overwhelming science, it’s impossible to think that the EPA could develop a contradictory finding that would stand up in court,” said David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Kate Gibson
Kate Gibson is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch in New York, where she covers business and consumer finance.
A legjobb élmény biztosítása érdekében olyan technológiákat használunk, mint a cookie-k az eszközadatok tárolására és/vagy eléréséhez. Ha beleegyezik ezekbe a technológiákba, akkor olyan adatokat dolgozhatunk fel ezen az oldalon, mint a böngészési viselkedés vagy az egyedi azonosítók. A hozzájárulás elmulasztása vagy visszavonása bizonyos funkciókat és funkciókat hátrányosan érinthet.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
