A crucial scientific decision from the Obama administration that underpins all federal initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been overturned by US President Donald Trump.
According to the so-called “endangerment finding” of 2009, several greenhouse gases posed a risk to public health. It now serves as the legal cornerstone of federal initiatives to reduce emissions, particularly in automobiles.
The reversal was dubbed the “largest deregulation in American history” by the White House, which claimed that it would lower automakers’ expenses by $2,400 per vehicle. Environmental organisations plan to contest the decision in court, claiming it is by far the biggest attempt to reverse climate change to yet.
In 2009, the first year of President Barack Obama’s first term, the Environmental Protection Agency made its first statement regarding the effects of greenhouse gases. The EPA determined that six major greenhouse gases that cause global warming, such as carbon dioxide and methane, pose a risk to human health.
The EPA finding became crucial to federal efforts to reduce emissions in the years that followed, as a divided Congress was unable to agree on legislation to address rising global temperatures. Meghan Greenfield, a former attorney for the EPA and Department of Justice, stated that the endangerment finding has been the cornerstone of US regulation of greenhouse gases.
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