By Valerie VolcoviciWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Trump nominees nominated to spearhead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s deregulatory initiatives are anticipated to face scrutiny during their Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday regarding the agency’s intentions to dismantle the foundation for rules on greenhouse gas emissions.
The focal point of the discussion will be whether the agency plans to reverse the 2009 “endangerment finding,” a pivotal decision that paved the way for regulating greenhouse gases under the U.S. Clean Air Act and served as the basis for various EPA climate regulations, including those pertaining to power plants and vehicle emissions.
According to sources familiar with the matter, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has proposed the idea of challenging the finding to the White House. While the EPA acknowledged the existence of such a proposal, the specifics of the recommendation were not disclosed.
During the Senate environment committee hearing on Wednesday, the confirmation of Aaron Szabo as the EPA’s assistant administrator for Air and Radiation and David Fotouhi as deputy administrator will be deliberated upon. These two individuals hold critical roles that would oversee any potential efforts to revoke the endangerment finding.
Notably, during Fotouhi’s tenure as EPA general counsel in the previous Trump administration, the agency refrained from pursuing the reversal of the endangerment finding in response to industry opposition. Fotouhi and Szabo were not reachable for comment at the time of reporting.
In a landmark 2007 case, Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court mandated that greenhouse gases be classified as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, further requiring EPA to ascertain that these gases in the atmosphere pose risks to public health and the environment.
Under the Obama administration, the EPA finalized the endangerment finding in 2009, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a prominent climate legislation signed by President Joe Biden, integrated language confirming greenhouse gases as air pollutants.
Although the Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade association, abstained from commenting on potential efforts to rescind the endangerment finding, it directed Reuters to a legal brief from 2022 in which it indicated the industry’s reliance on EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
The Alliance For Automotive Innovation stated that its members have yet to formulate a stance on whether the endangerment finding should be overturned, according to spokesperson Brian Weiss.
At his Senate confirmation hearing, Zeldin, a former Congressman from New York, acknowledged that the endangerment finding grants EPA the jurisdiction to regulate greenhouse gases, while emphasizing that the agency is not obligated to exercise this authority.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
