What Did EPA’s Lee Zeldin Just Say?
The greenhouse gas emissions proposal heard ‘round the diesel world.
On July 29th Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Lee Zeldin, dropped a bombshell statement. In an exchange with a reporter at a press conference in Indianapolis, Zeldin announced his agency’s proposal to revoke the greenhouse gas emissions regulations established by the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding. In what came as a shock to some, Zeldin disclosed that the Obama-era regulations wouldn’t be rolled back, altered, or reset under the Trump administration—but rather that they would be eliminated completely.
This is huge news and could prove a game-changer for the entire diesel industry—from passenger cars to pickups and medium duty trucks, to Class 8 tractor trailers. How this will play out across the industry remains to be seen, but it has the potential to undo $1 trillion worth of costly emissions regulations. At the press conference, Zeldin offered these statements regarding the proposal:
“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers. In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year. We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA’s GHG emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide which the [Endangerment] Finding never assessed independently, was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods. If finalized, rescinding the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations would end $1 trillion or more in hidden taxes on American businesses and families.”
Written by Mike McGlothlin
