The EPA’s Repeal of Core Greenhouse Gas Rules

“Trump’s EPA to repeal core of greenhouse gas rules,” was the Reuters headline this week as Lee Zeldin, chosen by Donald Trump to be administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, announced what Reuters said “will rescind the long-standing finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, as well as tailpipe emission standards for vehicles, removing the legal foundation of greenhouse gas regulations across industries.”

“Zeldin announced the agency’s plan to rescind the ‘endangerment finding’ at a truck factory in Indiana, alongside Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and called it the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” reported Reuters.

The move was anticipated.

As an article in the March issue of Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club, the largest environmental organization in the U.S., related: “The Trump administration has announced its first step toward trying to revoke one of the most consequential legal standards in the United States for acting on planet-heating fossil fuel emissions. Sixteen years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency issued its landmark ‘endangerment finding’ that greenhouse gases heating up the planet threaten public health and welfare. Two years earlier, the Supreme Court paved the way for that finding with a determination that the EPA has the authority to limit the emissions of those gases through federal regulation.”

“Now,” it continued, “the EPA, under Donald Trump, is trying to undo its own authority to take that action.”

Zeldin “is ready to lead” a “far more radical retreat on climate change” than made during Trump’s first term as president, it said.

Zeldin had just announced, the piece noted, that the EPA “will undertake a ‘formal reconsideration’ of its 2009 endangerment finding, which underpins the agency’s legal obligation to regulate carbon dioxide and other climate pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The EPA also announced that it intends to undo all of its prior rules that flow from that finding, including limits on emissions from automobiles and power plants alongside scores of other rules pertaining to air and water pollution.”

Zeldin had declared in his announcement: “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.”

”Climate advocates reacted with outrage,” the piece by Dana Drugmand went on. It quoted Joanne Spalding, legal director at the Sierra Club, saying: “Instead of protecting communities reeling from the havoc caused by climate disasters, Trump and Zeldin seek to shatter the foundation that undergirds our climate safeguards. Sierra Club has been expecting and preparing for this unlawful action, and we will use every legal means available to challenge it.”

The move to repeal the “endangerment finding” was a focus of a late February New Yorker magazine article by Bill McKibben, a leader in challenging climate change. He wrote “the reversal of the long-standing federal position” as Zeldin “recommended….would be truly and deeply disgraceful—not just climate denial but basic-science denial…true ‘1984’ stuff…equivalent of ‘War is peace’ and ‘Freedom is slavery.’” It would be “an explicit repudiation” of the understanding of “the role of carbon in our atmosphere.”

Further, McKibben wrote, the move is “entirely predictable” as Trump “has said that climate change is a ‘hoax’ and a ‘scam.’ So Zeldin could have been in little doubt about what he was supposed to do.”

What has been anticipated has happened—and is happening.

As a journalist based on eastern Long Island, living in a Congressional district represented by Zeldin, a resident of a community named Shirley for the real estate man who developed it after World War II, Walter T. Shirley, I have known and reported on Zeldin for many years. The environment was never a major concern.

The national League of Conservation Voters, in a letter signed by its president, Gene Karpinski, to members of the Senate called on it to reject the nomination by Trump of Zeldin to head the EPA. It said Zeldin’s abysmal 14% lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard, long history in Congress and the NY state legislature opposing environmental and public health safeguards for our communities, and little environmental experience render him unqualified for the role. Mr. Zeldin has a lengthy voting record and many public statements that raise troubling questions about what he will prioritize, and no experience that prepares him to lead the nation’s foremost agency tasked with protecting public health and the environment.”

In nominating Zeldin to be administrator of the EPA, Trump said: “I have known Lee Zeldin for a long time, and have watched him handle, brilliantly, some extremely difficult and complex situations. I am very proud to have him in the Trump Administration, where he will quickly prove to be a great contributor.”

Zeldin has been a close ally of Trump. In 2021, he was among Republican members of the House who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election which Trump said he won. Also, Zeldin was a leader in defending Trump during Trump’s first impeachment hearings.

“Unqualified,” declared Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation’s largest environmental organization, upon the nomination. It “lays bare Donald Trump’s intentions to, once again, sell our health, our communities, our jobs and future out to corporate polluters.”

“Trump Picks New EPA Head Guaranteed to Destroy the Environment,” was the headline in The New Republic. The subhead on its article: “This will be a disaster.”

With Zeldin in office as EPA administrator, Sierra, ran an article saying “axing programs and funding intended to address pollution and advance clean energy, are part of a sweeping effort….At the EPA, there has been an exodus of employees, a freeze on funding disbursement—including funds already authorized by Congress—as well as a dismissal of scientific advisory boards and a removal of climate change references from the agency’s website.”

In April, Zeldin, of Shirley, faced 100 protesters when he came to the Crest Hollow County Club in Westbury to speak at an event hosted by the Long Island Association.

The demonstration was organized by Food & Water Watch and the Long Island Progressive Coalition. At it, Eric Weltman, New York senior organizer at the national group, Food & Water Watch, said “New Yorkers deserve an EPA that protects our health and environment, not one that does the bidding of corporate polluters.”

Last month, there was criticism after Zeldin announced the EPA was dropping federal limits on four “forever chemicals” in drinking water. The weakening of the rules is “a betrayal of public trust,” charged Adriene Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment based in Farmingdale on Long Island. It “adds a significant threat to public health,” she said.

Still, Zeldin has remained supported by nearly all Republican members of Congress. At a hearing in May of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works at which he appeared, its chair, Senator Shelley Capito, a GOPer from West Virgina, opened it by telling Zeldin “I applaud your aggressive efforts to undo the previous administration’s regulatory overreach.”

At the same hearing, Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, told Zeldin “if you’re successful in eliminating half of our efforts to clean our water and our air, your legacy will be more lung cancer, it’ll be more bladder cancer, it’ll be more head and neck cancer, it’ll be more breast cancer, it’ll be more leukemia and pancreatic cancer…more rare cancers of innumerable varieties.”

Zeldin shot back: “With that wind-up, by the way, I understand that you are an aspiring fiction writer. I see why.”

Schiff responded: “I understand your view that you can cut half of the agency, and it won’t affect people’s health or their water, their air. That, to me, is a big fiction.”

At that hearing, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island took issue with what Zeldin claimed was his personal review of grants saying this was contradicted by court filings by “career lawyers” from the Justice Department representing EPA that “you had not done individualized, grant-by-grant reviews.”

Zeldin, a Republican, responded: “The American taxpayers, they put President Trump in

office because of people like you. They have Republicans in charge of the House and Senate because of people like you.”

Environmental groups have regularly and strongly complained about Zeldin as EPA

administrator. Sierra Club, with 3.8 million members, recently issued a statement: “Since Trump took office and chose Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency, it has been besieged by mass firings, axed programs and funding cuts.” Citing the Zeldin statement that, “We are putting a dagger through the heart of the climate-change religion,” it said “it’s Zeldin who’s the zealot. He seems to believe everything the coal, oil and gas industry tells him. Ignoring the science, and putting your future at risk, he’s launched an unprecedented attack—not just on the EPA, but on the environment itself.”

On July 1, The New York Times reported: “More than 270 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency signed a letter denouncing what they described as the Trump administration’s efforts to politicize, dismantle and sideline the main federal agency tasked with protecting the environment and public health. The letter…was a remarkable rebuke of the agency’s political leadership.”

It was sent to Zeldin with copies to members of Congress and Congressional committees and titled a “Declaration of Dissent.”

It began: “EPA employees join in solidarity with employees across the federal government in opposing this administration’s policies, including those that undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment. Since the agency’s founding in 1970, EPA has accomplished this mission by leveraging science, funding, and expert staff in service to the American people. Today, we stand together in dissent against the current administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise.”

It continued: “Since January 2025, federal workers across the country have been denigrated and dismissed based on false claims of waste, fraud, and abuse. Meanwhile, Americans have witnessed the unraveling of public health and environmental protections in the pursuit of political advantage.” There was a list of “concerns.”

These included:

“Undermining public trust. EPA’s non-partisan nature ensures that all Americans—regardless of political affiliation—are served by an agency guided by scientific expertise, professional integrity, and an unwavering commitment to the public good. For over five decades, EPA’s strength has come from its commitment to science-based decision-making. However, under this administration, the Agency’s communication platforms have been used to promote misinformation and overtly partisan rhetoric. For example, EPA press releases…have referred to EPA grants as ‘green slush funds’ and praised ‘clean coal’ as ‘beautiful.’ The Office of the Administrator has used official EPA channels to liken climate science to a religion…”

“Ignoring scientific consensus to benefit polluters. This administration’s actions directly contradict EPA’s own scientific assessments on human health risks, most notably regarding asbestos, mercury, and greenhouse gases. Health-based regulatory standards are being repealed or reconsidered, including drinking water limits for four PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ that cause cancer…”

“Reversing EPA’s progress in America’s most vulnerable communities. Research

overwhelmingly shows that the country’s most vulnerable communities, including Black communities and other communities of color, poor communities…often face higher exposure to environmental hazards and climate change impacts….Canceling environmental justice programs is not cutting waste; it is failing to serve the American people.”

“Dismantling the Office of Research and Development….The gutting of staff and science and your proposed budget cuts for the coming year will leave ORD unable to meet the science needs of the EPA and its partners and will threaten the health of all Americans.”

Said the letter said: “Your decisions and actions will reverberate for generations to come. EPA under your leadership will not protect communities from hazardous chemicals and unsafe drinking water, but instead will increase risks to public health and safety.”

Reported subsequently by The New York Times and other media was that EPA placed 144 signatories of the letter on “administrative leave” and Zeldin saying he had “ZERO tolerance policy for agency bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the agenda of this administration.”

The New York Times has reported that Trump nominated Zeldin to “a post that is expected to be central to Mr. Trump’s plans to dismantle climate regulations. It also has said some on the Trump transition team believed “the agency needs a wholesale makeover and are discussing moving the EPA headquarters…out of Washington.”

The Washington Post has published an article headlined, “Lee Zeldin didn’t ask to head EPA. Here’s why Trump picked him.” It told of “Zeldin’s political evolution from a moderate who occasionally collaborated with conservationists to a MAGA loyalist….Zeldin lacks extensive experience in environmental policy, and he did not seek out the position of EPA administrator, according to two people familiar with the matter….Instead, Trump called Zeldin and asked him to implement his agenda at the agency, and Zeldin agreed, the two people said. ‘The president-elect tapped someone who he believes will carry out what he wants at EPA,’ said former [upstate New York Republican] Congressman Thomas M. Reynolds, a friend of Zeldin’s, adding that ‘Lee has been a guy who Trump knows not only because he was a New York congressman, but also because he was an aggressive supporter.’ Zeldin was one of the first Republicans to endorse Trump’s candidacy in 2016, joining his impeachment defense team and supporting Trump’s efforts to deny the results of the 2020 election. During the 2024 campaign, he appeared regularly at Mar-a-Lago and stumped for the former president in battleground states.”

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