The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to rescind its legal authority to regulate greenhouse gases, a move that could unravel climate protections in place for over a decade.
The EPA has proposed repealing its 2009 “endangerment finding,” a ruling that declared greenhouse gases a threat to public health and welfare. That decision gave the agency the legal basis to regulate emissions from vehicles, power plants, and other industries under the Clean Air Act.
Meanwhile, environmental justice advocates warn that rolling back greenhouse gas regulations could hit Black communities especially hard. These neighborhoods are more likely to be near highways, power plants, landfills, and industrial zones—sources of pollution that drive asthma, heart disease, and other health problems.
A 2021 EPA report found that Black Americans are 1.5 times more likely than white Americans to live in areas with the highest projected increases in pollution-related impacts due to climate change. “Communities already overburdened by environmental hazards will face even greater risks if protections are stripped away,” the NAACP said in a previous statement on climate policy
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency believes it overstepped its authority and that Congress never clearly gave it permission to regulate greenhouse gases. He called the move “the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States,” according to The Washington Post.
The 2009 finding followed a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that defined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as air pollutants. That opened the door for federal action to limit emissions tied to climate change.
Removing the endangerment finding would block the EPA from enforcing most rules on carbon and methane pollution. That includes emission standards for cars and limits on pollution from fossil fuel plants.