In the 55 years since its founding under President Richard Nixon, the Environmental Protection Agency has been a regulatory pendulum, swinging between stringent and lax control of air pollution. Under Democratic presidents, the agency tends to clamp down on emissions from cars and smokestacks. Under Republicans, it tends to give automakers and the manufacturing sector more flexibility.
When President Donald Trump returned to office last year, climate experts expected him to tilt the balance toward industry as he did in his first term, continuing the ping-pong of the last few decades.
Instead, his EPA is going much farther, attempting to eliminate its own power to govern pollution. The agency is soon expected to release its final proposal to repeal the landmark “endangerment finding,” an Obama-era rule that gave it the authority to regulate the greenhouse gases that warm the earth; at the same time, it will also repeal its rule limiting automotive carbon emissions. The agency also confirmed this week that it will no longer quantify the human health benefits o... Read more
