by Lesley Clark
E&E News’s ClimateWire
Conservatives hope the president-elect will topple a pillar of U.S. climate policy, but environmental attorneys say the science underpinning the finding is secure.
Climate science skeptics emboldened by a second Trump administration are eager to strike down a scientific finding that bolsters U.S. climate action.
But repealing the landmark decree that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare may prove a tough lift — even with a Supreme Court that has shown a predilection for paring back environmental regulations…
“It is absolutely on the chopping block, the whole climate agenda is on the chopping block,” said Steve Milloy, a lawyer who served on Trump’s EPA transition team in 2016 and considers the endangerment finding the “source of the evil” when it comes to U.S. climate policy. “There are plans to do everything we’ve ever dreamed of.”…
Milloy says things will be different this time under Trump’s nominee to lead the agency, former Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York.
“It was sort of botched in Trump 1, they didn’t get the memo and dropped the ball,” Milloy said. “I think that with Trump 2.0, we’ve all learned a lot more.”…
“The demise of Chevron has no legal relationship to the endangerment finding,” said Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown Law professor. “The endangerment finding isn’t an interpretation of the Clean Air Act or any other statute; it’s a factual finding based on scientific evidence.”
Milloy said the Supreme Court rulings could be helpful. But he argued the administration may not even need to revisit Massachusetts v EPA. Instead, the administration could persuade the agency to scrap the finding under the Administrative Procedures Act.
