EPA won’t regulate GHG for vehicles and engines anymore
The EPA announced today that it would rescind a 2009 rule that the EPA uses to justify regulating greenhouse gas emissions. If finalized, all greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines would be nullified.
EPA’s proposed rule, if finalized, would repeal all greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines, including the first regulations set under the Obama and Biden Administrations in 2010. The press release estimates that the proposal would save $54 billion in costs annually under “conservative economic forecasts.”
The EPA has authority under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act to prescribe emission standards for motor vehicles when it is determined that an air pollutant “causes or contributes” to air pollution that endangers public health or welfare. However, in 2009, the press release states that the Obama EPA “ignored Congress’ clear intent” and found that CO2 and five other gases contribute “some unspecified amount to climate change, which in turn creates some unspecified amount of endangerment to human health and welfare.”
EPA argues that the CAA only gives EPA the authority to regulate air pollution that endangers human health and welfare in the context of “local or regional exposure,” consistent with “longstanding practice before 2009.” The EPA also “recognizes that we have relied” on this rule to regulate greenhouse gases from other sources, like power plants. American Experiment had submitted a 35-page comment on the Biden administration’s overreaching power plant regulations, which would require coal and new natural gas plants to capture 90 percent of their emissions by 2032 or shut down by 2039.
Major Supreme Court decisions since 2009 have clarified the scope of EPA’s authority under CAA, including West Virginia v. EPA in 2022, which attempted to shift the power grid away from coal, natural gas, and oil through greenhouse gas emissions standards. The Supreme Court held that Congress must clearly authorize agencies to decide “major questions” of policy.
The Department of Energy also released a report today, “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate,” that concludes that “U.S. policy actions are expected to have undetectably small direct impacts on the global climate and any effects will emerge only with long delays.” The report will be available for a public comment period after it is published in the Federal Register.
The full text of the rule may be found here. Comments on EPA’s reconsideration of the endangerment finding will be accepted through September 21, 2025.