US President Donald Trump has overturned a key scientific ruling from the Barack Obama era that supported all federal action to limit greenhouse gases, BBC reports.
The 2009 “Finding of Hazards” concluded that a number of greenhouse gases posed a threat to public health. It became the legal basis for federal efforts to curb emissions, particularly from vehicles.
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Letter to the Reader — Why We're Asking for Your Support ContributeThe White House said the repeal will make cars cheaper, cutting costs for automakers by $2,400 per vehicle.
Environmental groups say the move is by far the most significant rollback of climate change measures ever attempted and are expected to challenge it in the courts.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said the 2009 decision was "a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively raised prices for American consumers."
"This radical rule became the legal foundation for the Green New Scam, one of the biggest scams in history," the Republican president added, referring to the Democrats' climate agenda.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first took a position on the impacts of greenhouse gases in 2009, the first year of Barack Obama's first term.
The agency determined that six major gases that warm the planet, including carbon dioxide and methane, were a risk to human health.
With a divided Congress unable to agree on legislation to address rising global temperatures, the EPA's finding became central to federal efforts to curb emissions in the years that followed.
Repealing the finding will reduce automakers' costs by $2,400 per vehicle, White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt told reporters.
Many environmentalists are skeptical of the potential cost savings that the Trump team is promoting.
“It will force Americans to spend more money, about $1.4 trillion in additional fuel costs to power these less efficient and more polluting vehicles,” said Peter Zalzal of the Environmental Defense Fund.
"We have also analysed the health impacts and found that action would result in up to 58,000 additional premature deaths, 37 million additional asthma attacks," he said.
While working to overturn the finding, the Trump administration also used the 2009 ruling to prevent states from enacting stricter carbon emissions laws.
The fact that the finding gave a federal authority responsibility for regulating greenhouse gases was also used to suppress so-called “nuisance” lawsuits brought by individuals or organizations related to the climate issue.
A court challenge to the overturning of the dangerousness finding may be exactly what the Trump administration is now seeking.
Many legal experts believe they want the proposal to be tested in the Supreme Court before the end of Trump's term, believing that if they win, the finding of dangerousness will be consigned to history.
“This is really different, because the EPA is completely moving out of this area and wants to do this permanently,” said Meghan Greenfield, who was once at the Environmental Protection Agency.
"If they were to win that case as they have presented it before the Supreme Court, a new presidential administration would not be able to change that position, absent new legislation."