EPA Repeals Major Climate and Emissions Rules
The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized the repeal of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding, eliminating the legal basis for regulating GHG emissions from sources like power plants and large factories under the Clean Air Act. The agency also repealed emission standards for hazardous air pollutants from utility steam generators. A third rule shifts chemical accident prevention to a "common sense" approach, potentially loosening requirements.
- The 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding was predicated on the 2007 Supreme Court ruling in *Massachusetts v. EPA*, which determined that greenhouse gases qualify as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. This finding served as the legal foundation for subsequent regulations on emissions from vehicles, power plants, and other industrial sources. - The repealed hazardous air pollutant standards, known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), were first finalized in 2012 and led to an 81.7% reduction in mercury emissions from power plants by 2017. The new rule repeals 2024 updates, reverting to the original 2012 standards and relaxing limits for certain pollutants like filterable particulate matter. - The "common sense" revision to the Chemical Accident Prevention rules scales back the Risk Management Program (RMP), which governs facilities using extremely hazardous substances. Proposed changes include rescinding a requirement for facilities to provide chemical hazard information upon request to people living or working within a six-mile radius. - The new chemical accident prevention approach also seeks to better align the EPA's RMP with OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM) standard to reduce duplicative requirements and compliance burdens on facilities. One proposal involves entirely rescinding the requirement for third-party compliance audits. - A coalition of 17 health and environmental organizations, including the American Lung Association and the Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit Court challenging the repeal of the Endangerment Finding. - The EPA administrator has called the repeal of the Endangerment Finding "the single largest deregulatory action in US history," projecting significant cost savings for households and businesses. Conversely, opponents argue that externalized costs from health impacts and climate-related damages will shift to the public and insurers. - While the repeals are positioned as pro-business, some industry voices, particularly in the oil and gas sector, have previously expressed a preference for consistent federal regulations over a potential patchwork of state-level rules that could create compliance uncertainty. - The rollback of the Endangerment Finding has raised concerns among institutional investors about long-term U.S. competitiveness and the stability of investments in clean energy and sustainability initiatives.
