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Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is shredding the federal government’s ability to fight climate change.
What happened? On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the end of its 2009 “endangerment finding” — a legal justification for regulating greenhouse gases that my colleague Umair Irfan has described as a “load-bearing pillar of climate regulation in the US.” Without it, many key climate regulations could fall.
What does this mean for the fight against climate change? For now, the administration is using the end of the endangerment finding to eliminate emissions standards for vehicles. It’s a big deal — greenhouse gases produced by cars are a significant contributor to climate change — and a longtime Republican goal.
But it might not go as far as they’re hoping, either: Market forces and advancing electric vehicle technology both incentivize car manufacturers to keep making cleaner, more efficient vehicles, as does the possibility that a court ruling or a future Democratic administration could reinstate the finding.
What’s the context? We knew that this was coming. The EPA officially said in July that it planned to reverse the finding, but the writing was on the wall even before then, after Trump signed a day-one executive order directing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to review its “legality and continuing applicability.”
What happens next? The endangerment finding is officially repealed, but that doesn’t mean the issue is settled. As Umair reported earlier today, the EPA’s move is certain to draw lawsuits; these actually stand a fair chance of success, though it’s by no means a sure thing. A new president could also reinstate the endangerment finding, though that would require going through the same lengthy public review process the Trump administration has.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
Thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
