When the 'Regulators' are Really the Lobbyists' Secretaries
THE CLAIM: What are they telling us? Axios, citing the Wall Street Journal and other sources, reports that the EPA is on the verge of rescinding its 2009 'endangerment finding' regarding greenhouse gases. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is quoted calling it 'the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.' The immediate target appears to be motor vehicle emissions, with the
expected ripple effect of undermining regulations for power plants, oil and gas, and beyond. THE EVIDENCE: What does the public record actually show? Curiously, the Biden administration has been less than enthusiastic about enforcing the existing endangerment finding. For example, while the EPA has the authority to regulate methane emissions under the Clean Air Act – authority stemming directly
from the 2009 finding – it only proposed its first national methane rule for existing oil and gas infrastructure in 2021, and its final rule in 2024. This delay, despite overwhelming scientific consensus (IPCC 2022), suggests a prior regulatory lethargy that paved the way for this more overt attack. One might also recall the historical blueprint for such attacks. The Clean Air Act itself, passed
in 1970, was a bipartisan effort. Yet, its regulatory teeth have been under constant assault from coordinated industry-backed legal challenges and legislative riders for decades. The American Petroleum Institute (API), for instance, has funded numerous lawsuits and lobbying efforts against environmental protections since its inception in 1919, consistently arguing against scientific consensus when