The Trump administration wants to repeal the 2009 “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has reportedly urged President Donald Trump to overhaul the finding, which would impact all Clean Air Act climate regulations.

Travis Fisher, Cato’s Director of Energy and Environmental Policy Studies, issued this statement:

“The Environmental Protection Agency’s coming reversal of the endangerment finding is appropriate. Justice Scalia was correct in his dissent in Mass v EPA that the agency and the court majority in 2007 ignored a problematic sticking point—the fact that carbon dioxide is not a traditional air pollutant. Further, the EPA’s decision to label it as such is a major policy question that can only be decided by lawmakers, not executive agencies or courts. Thus, reversing the endangerment finding would put this issue where it belongs, which is back in Congress, where lawmakers would have to confront the many tradeoffs associated with mitigating carbon dioxide emissions and be accountable to their constituents.”

If you would like to speak to Fisher about this, please reach out to mmiller@​cato.​org.