Trump-tied Texas group petitions EPA to reconsider whether greenhouse gases are a problem
Source: Think Progress
The EPA’s endangerment finding is the cornerstone for U.S. policy on climate change.
Samantha Page
May 2
Five years ago, the Supreme Court declined to hear what was thought to be the last challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding on greenhouse gases.
But on Tuesday, a conservative think tank with ties to the Trump administration, ExxonMobil, and the Koch brothers petitioned the EPA to reconsider the finding, which is the basis for the agency’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and stave off the worse effects of climate change.
“Because carbon dioxide is everywhere and in everything, the Endangerment Finding provides EPA with a springboard for regulating virtually every aspect of our nation’s economic life,” the filing from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) says. “At the same time, it is the product of serious legal, scientific, evidentiary, and procedural errors. Those errors reflect the past Administration’s rush to judgment, which was spurred by political expediency.”
Endangerment findings — which have also been developed for lead, mercury, and other pollutants that affect human health and the environment — are a first step in the EPA’s rule-making process. Once the agency has found that something is endangering health, it is required to develop regulation. In the case of greenhouse gases, the EPA came up with the Clean Power Plan, which seeks to limit carbon emissions from the electricity sector. Electricity, until recently, was the number one source of greenhouse gases in the United States.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-tied-texas-group-petitions-epa-to-reconsider-whether-greenhouse-gases-are-a-problem-9626850e6b66