The EPA is set to repeal an Obama-era greenhouse gas rule, in what the EPA is describing as “the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.” The new rule will reportedly eliminate requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with the federal greenhouse gas emission standards for motor vehicles that were put in place after the 2009 “endangerment finding” of six greenhouse gases that the Obama administration argued posed “a threat to public health and welfare,” including CO2, a gas that is essential for plants.
Despite no real scientific evidence or consensus confirming that CO2 emissions are increasing due to human activity, and the rule being based on a false pretense of climate alarmism, including overpredicting global warming and an increase in frequency and intensity of storms, the EPA used a 2007 Supreme Court ruling to justify these regulations, and virtually any other policies that they wish to implement.
The repeal of this rule will begin to reverse the severe overstepping of the EPA’s authority that was put in place based on flawed data and over-exaggerated claims, placing an unnecessary burden on consumers and costing more than $1 trillion in unneeded regulations and higher energy costs. Overturning this disastrous rule might face significant legal challenges, but will hopefully open the door to a significantly weaker department and the authority being placed back in the hands of Congress, where it was designed to be. Congress must represent we the people instead of relying on unelected bureaucrats to do the job that they were elected to do.
Climate alarmism has been one of the largest schemes in history, based off of fear and controlling the consumer, and I am glad to see the Trump administration taking it seriously and beginning to reverse this monumental overreach.
Levi Mikula is an editorial intern at The Heartland Institute.
