Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin was at an Indianapolis truck dealership on Tuesday, announcing rollbacks that will undo efforts to combat climate change taken during former President Barack Obama’s administration.
In a Tuesday news release, the EPA announced it plans to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which found six greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare of current and future generations.
The “endangerment finding” is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.
According to the EPA, the 2009 Endangerment Finding has been used to justify more than $1 trillion in regulations. Zeldin said the action will save more than $54 billion annually, according to the department.
The environmental agency aims to repeal greenhouse gas emissions for motor vehicles and engines, which the news release argues will give Americans “the ability to purchase a safe and affordable car” and decrease “the cost of living on all products that trucks deliver.” The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
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Zeldin was joined by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita; U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright; Rep. Jim Baird, R-Indiana; Indiana Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources Suzanne Jaworowski; and the Indiana Motor Truck Association for the announcement.
In a 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
The EPA’s proposal is open for 45 days of public comment at regulations.gov. Environmental groups are expected to challenge the repeal in court.
Zeldin said in the news release that EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions were the “real threat” to American livelihoods.
“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” Zeldin said. “In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year.”
Environmental activists nationwide argue that the changes are damaging for everyone.
“This is yet another disgraceful publicity stunt from an administration intent on advancing an energy agenda that only serves the oligarchs profiting off environmental destruction,” Ashley Williams, executive director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said in an email. “With every regulatory rollback, now including the repeal of the Endangerment Finding, our planet is steadily speeding into climate chaos, impacts felt daily by frontline communities in the steel-dominated Rust Belt. We won’t stop organizing to hold this administration accountable for the harm they’re inflicting on Hoosiers — at the ballot box and in the streets.”
The Environmental Protection Network, composed of former EPA officials, said in a Tuesday news release that the EPA is choosing polluters over people with its actions. Its repeal threatens every major federal climate protection adopted in the past 15 years, according to the organization.
“This repeal is not a misunderstanding of the science. It is a calculated decision to ignore it — and the law,” Michelle Roos, EPN executive director, said in a statement. “By discarding the Endangerment Finding, EPA is surrendering its authority, deserting vulnerable communities and dismantling decades of progress. The public health consequences will be immediate, widespread and devastating.”
In the EPA’s news release, Braun claimed that previous EPAs used regulations as a political tool and hurt American competitiveness.
“(Tuesday’s) announcement is a win for consumer choice, common sense, and American energy independence,” he said. “President Trump, Secretary Wright, and Administrator Zeldin are returning the EPA to its proper role, and I’m proud they chose Indiana as the place to make this announcement because our state is proof we can protect our environment and support American jobs.”
The American Lung Association announced in April that Hoosiers are breathing some of the nation’s most polluted air in its “State of the Air” report. The Indianapolis metro area ranked the 54th worst in the nation for ozone pollution and 21st worst for particle pollution.
In Northwest Indiana, the American Lung Association gave Lake County failing grades in three categories: ozone pollution, 24-hour particle pollution and annual particle pollution. Porter County only received a passing grade for annual particle pollution.
Ozone and particle pollution can cause premature death and other health effects, including asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, preterm birth and impaired cognitive function, according to the American Lung Association. The organization also found that particle pollution can cause lung cancer.
In a Tuesday news release, Rokita said Zeldin and other Trump administration officials are helping conservative leaders “unleash American energy.”
“Over the last four years, conservative state attorneys general were the last line of defense in fighting back against the Biden administration’s federal overreach and green new scam agenda,” Rokita said. “I’m grateful for the confidence we can have in the Trump administration to do the right things like putting forth commonsense policies that put us back on the path to prosperity.”
Rokita claims he’s taken several actions against regulations, including suing the federal government with 20 other states to challenge a rule that would’ve required state agencies to set declining carbon emissions standards for highways; challenged a federal rule requiring an increased share of heavy-duty vehicles to be electric; and challenged the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rule for heavy-duty vehicles.
State Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, who is the ranking minority leader of the House Environmental Affairs Committee, released a statement following Zeldin’s visit to Indiana. Errington said it’s misleading to call the EPA’s actions “deregulation” and said it’s instead “deletion.”
Hoosiers are already facing various environmental challenges, Errington said, and the EPA’s actions won’t make the state safer or more environmentally healthy.
“Federal officials love to visit Indiana and talk about ‘commonsense’ reforms for health — whether it’s nutrition, health care or wellness programs,” Errington said. “But how are Hoosiers supposed to stay healthy if they cannot even breathe clean air? Individual responsibility matters, yes, but when our institutions remove the basic safeguards for air and water, they are actively making people sicker.”
She urges the EPA and Braun to reconsider the actions and prioritize public health and environmental responsibility.
EarthJustice, a San Francisco-based nonprofit public interest environmental law organization, also released a statement after Zeldin’s Indiana meeting, saying the EPA seeks to deny science “by creating legal distinctions that have no basis in the law.”
The organization argues that the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases were decided by the U.S. Supreme Court more than a decade ago.
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“With today’s announcement, the EPA is telling us in no uncertain terms that U.S. efforts to address climate change are over,” Abigail Dillen, EarthJustice president, said in a news release. “For the industries that contribute most to climate change, the message is ‘pollute more.’ For everyone feeling the pain of climate disasters, the message is ‘you’re on your own.’”
The Associated Press contributed.