Trump Just Ended the EPA’s Climate Power Grab, and the Left Is Losing It
By Matt MargolisPresident Donald Trump just delivered a knockout punch to Obama-era climate hysteria, and the bureaucrats are having a total meltdown.
On Thursday, the Trump administration finalized rules repealing the EPA’s endangerment finding — that dubious 2009 determination claiming six greenhouse gases threaten human health under the Clean Air Act. “We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding,” Trump announced, calling the policy exactly what it was: “disastrous.”
This wasn’t just some regulatory tweak. The endangerment finding was the entire foundation for the EPA’s power grab over climate policy under the Barack Obama regime. It allowed unelected bureaucrats to impose crushing regulations on the oil and gas industry, power plants, and vehicles, all without Congress ever voting to grant them that authority. Essentially, it let EPA staffers reshape the entire American economy based on a single “finding” they issued themselves.
Trump’s repeal also axes those vehicle emission rules, since they all stem from the same flawed finding.
In addition, the Trump administration will finalize a repeal of rules that regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, since they stem from the finding. Under former President Joe Biden, the EPA sought to tighten those standards to prod the auto industry to make more fuel-efficient hybrids and electric vehicles — an effort the industry has since backtracked on.
The full text of EPA’s repeal of the endangerment finding wasn’t made available before the Trump administration announced it, but the justification will likely rely far more on legal arguments that climate pollution cannot be regulated by the landmark Clean Air Act than an outright rejection of climate science, legal experts told CNN.
Good riddance.
Naturally, the left is freaking out. The New York Times report on the repeal came with the loaded headline “Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change.”
Can you hear me rolling my eyes?
Abigail Dillen from Earthjustice promised to “see the Trump administration in court,” crying about “disasters that are hitting us harder every year.” Because, as you probably noticed, every single weather event is now treated like a climate emergency requiring EPA dictators to run our lives.
Legal experts expect Trump’s EPA to argue that the Clean Air Act simply doesn’t give bureaucrats the power to regulate climate pollution — not that climate science itself is wrong. That’s the right approach. Even if you buy into climate alarmism, the question remains: who gets to make policy about it? Elected representatives in Congress, or unaccountable agency officials?
Climate groups will sue. I’m sure they're shopping some Obama or Biden-nominated judge right now. Media outlets will wail about the end of the world. But Trump just reminded Washington of something it desperately needed to hear: agencies don’t get to legislate, no matter how righteous they think their cause is.
According to Holmstead, an energy attorney with the law firm Bracewell, and a former high-ranking EPA official in the George W. Bush administration, if the Trump administration’s repeal is “upheld in court, no future EPA will be able to regulate (carbon dioxide) emissions.”
Gee, that’s too bad. Is that the end of the world? Heck no. Congress could pass a new law that specifically directs the EPA to regulate climate pollution. Putting the onus on Congress would force compromise on the issue, instead of enabling aggressive and excessive regulations that are unrealistic for the public.
The administrative state spent decades expanding its power through creative interpretations of old laws never meant to address modern policy debates. Trump is finally pushing back, and the establishment can’t stand it.
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