Democracy Now! ENDANGERMENT FINDING: Trump’s EPA Guts Key Rule

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We turn now to the Trump administration’s sweeping rollback of climate change policy. On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to overturn its own conclusion that greenhouse gases endanger public health and cause global warming. Known as the endangerment finding, the Obama-era rules from 2009 required the federal government to regulate the emissions of six gases, including carbon monoxide and methane, which are released from the burning of oil, gas and coal. The Trump administration’s reversal of this decision would undo the legal basis of the fight against global warming and remove emissions standards for cars and trucks and reporting on obligations for power plants and industries. The EPA’s draft version the new rule says the endangerment finding overstated the risk of heat waves and underplayed the benefits of increased carbon pollution.

In a post on X on Tuesday, the EPA Secretary Lee Zeldin wrote, quote, “This week, we make history. Getting ready to join President Trump to announce the single largest act of deregulation in the history of the USA,” unquote.

For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists, also an environmental engineer, formerly worked on environmental policy in the Biden White House and at the Department of Transportation.

Gretchen, thanks so much for being with us. Talk about the significance of what’s happening now.

GRETCHEN GOLDMAN: It’s quite significant, and it was quite devastating to see, even though we expected that this was coming. The impacts of this action will be vast, both in terms of our immediate ability to protect people from the harms of climate change, economic harms, health harms, and also in terms of our ability to meet U.S. climate goals, to meet global climate goals.

And this is all happening with time that we don’t have. We know we need to swiftly and dramatically reduce heat-trapping gas emissions now, as year after year we see devastating harm from climate-driven extreme weather events. And this is now something we really need to take action on, and so it’s quite devastating to see this week.

AMY GOODMAN: The Trump administration initially attempted to undermine the science behind the endangerment finding. And again, for people to understand, explain exactly what that is and what that report was, based at the Department of Energy.

GRETCHEN GOLDMAN: As part of their broader attacks on climate science and climate action, the Trump administration secretly convened a group of climate contrarians under the Department of Energy to produce a report that reiterated many of the long-debunked climate denial talking points and tried to pass it off as a science-based report. We won in court, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Environmental Defense Fund together. We won, and the administration disbanded that group of climate contrarians and have had to turn over more than 100,000 pages of documents related to that. We’re seeing that they are being slowed down by these efforts and our ability to push back.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about President Trump’s personal connections to fossil fuel executives and how exactly that is affecting what is expected to be announced on Thursday, again, what many are calling the single — including Zeldin, the single biggest attack in U.S. history on federal authority to tackle the climate crisis? He calls it the single largest deregulation act in U.S. history.

GRETCHEN GOLDMAN: This is their holy grail. They’ve been focused on this for a long time, because the reality of climate change and its impacts are very inconvenient if you’re someone who wants to give handouts to the fossil fuel industry and wants to ensure that these industries can continue polluting communities across the country. And so, we’re seeing them really take steps to give handouts to connections to the fossil fuel industry and others. And that’s harming communities, especially Black and Brown communities, where we know already face disproportionate impacts and harms from toxic air pollution.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes a month after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the UNFCCC — right? — the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Talk about the significance of these two acts together.

GRETCHEN GOLDMAN: We’re really seeing the abdication of U.S. leadership on climate, and that has huge implications, both for our immediate ability to reduce heat-trapping emissions globally, as we know is desperately needed, but also in terms of our standing and contribution in the world. The U.S. has long exhibited climate leadership in terms of innovation, in terms of reduction in emissions and in terms of providing that urgency around what we need to do to take action on climate change. And this, unfortunately, is going to set us back a long time in terms of that diplomacy, those international relationships and the U.S.’s ability to help lead the world in taking action on climate change.

AMY GOODMAN: Karoline Leavitt, the White House press spokesperson, emphasized auto standards being an area where regulation will be rolled back. You used to work, Gretchen Goldman, at the Department of Transportation. Can you talk about emissions standards and what’s been achieved by these standards, and the incredible effect of a rollback?

GRETCHEN GOLDMAN: I was at the Department of Transportation working on climate and transportation issues, and so this is very devastating to me personally, as well. Under the previous administration, we issued the strongest standards to reduce dependence of cars and trucks on fossil fuel, and this was saving people money at the pump. It was helping us with climate emissions reductions, and it was reducing toxic air pollution in communities. It was one of the strongest climate actions that this nation has taken. But now, tomorrow, it’s expected to be announced that they’re repealing those standards, and that’s going to set us back. It’s going to cost consumers more money, and it’s really going to stifle innovation and our ability to meet the moment and reduce climate emissions everywhere.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for being with us, Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists, speaking to us from Washington, D.C.

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