Comment Filed In Support Of EPA's Repeal Of The 2009 Endangerment Finding

Yesterday, along with two excellent colleagues, I submitted a Comment to EPA on the subject of the proposed and pending repeal of the so-called Endangerment Finding of 2009.  The Endangerment Finding (EF) is the absurd regulatory action by which the Obama-era EPA purported to find that the trace gas carbon dioxide (CO2) constitutes a “danger” to human health and welfare as it accumulates in the atmosphere from the current level of about 0.04%, to perhaps 0.05% or maybe even (the horror!) 0.06% by some time later this century.  The EF is then the basis for all the subsequent regulatory initiatives by the Obama and Biden administrations to regulate and suppress the production and use of hydrocarbon fuels.  These initiatives have included things like rules to force the closure of all coal and natural gas power plants by some time in the 2030s; mileage rules for automobiles that would ratchet up over time until no gasoline-powered car could comply (also by some time in the 2030s); restrictions on oil and gas leases on federal lands; blocking the construction of pipelines; and even regulations that have made it so that dishwashers and washing machines don’t work very well any more.

Some background for those who have not been following closely, or maybe who have lost track of the status of this long-running saga:  The EF was always absurd, but as long as Obama was in office it was pointless to try to get his EPA to reconsider it.  However, after Trump first got elected in 2016, I got together with a group of friends and colleagues to see if we could encourage, or maybe even force, the new Trump administration to get rid of this very destructive regulation.  On January 20, 2017 — Inauguration Day of the Trump 45 administration — we filed a Petition for Reconsideration of the EF.  The Petition was based on scientific research that had come out during the time after the 2009 EF, and that undermined what was already the slim basis for the finding of endangerment.

But then, sadly, the first Trump administration did not make this issue one of its priorities.  In the period from 2017 to 2020, we filed seven Supplements to our initial Petition, each time using citations to new information or research further undermining the basis for the EF in an effort to get EPA’s attention.  But the first Trump administration never undertook the effort to repeal it.

Then Biden came into office, and issued a final rejection of our Petition for Reconsideration in 2022.  We proceeded to appeal that rejection to the D.C. Circuit.  Actually, we had no illusions that a Biden EPA would undo the EF, even if ordered to reconsider it by the D.C. Circuit or Supreme Court.  However, we did think that by keeping the issue alive during the four Biden years, we could increase the chance that a new Republican administration in 2025 (whether Trump or someone else) would undertake the task, either on its own initiative or by compulsion from a court.