ICYMI: Exclusive Coverage on EPA’s Historic Day of Deregulation
WASHINGTON – Last week, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the 31 historic actions undertaken by the agency in the most consequential and momentous day of deregulation in U.S. history.
These monumental actions prioritize the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment, while fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower cost of living for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.
Read more below on the exclusive coverage of the announcements to reconsider the Clean Power Plan 2.0, EV mandate, 2009 Endangerment Finding, social cost of carbon, regulations on coal-fired powerplants and resolve the backlog of state implementation plans (SIPs) to improve air quality.
Fox News
Emma Colton
“FIRST ON FOX: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the ‘most consequential day of deregulation’ in U.S. history on Wednesday, putting the Biden administration's Clean Power Plan 2.0, which cracked down on power plants, on the chopping block.
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“The 2.0 plan was touted in 2024 as one of the Biden administration's most ‘aggressive’ climate policies, while conservative lawmakers slammed it as one that could have a ‘catastrophic’ effect on the nation's electric grid.
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“The Supreme Court in 2022, however, struck down the Clean Power Plan in the case of West Virginia v. EPA, curbing the agency's ability to broadly regulate carbon emissions.
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“The EPA added in its press release that the Trump administration's executive orders and actions to ‘Power the Great American Comeback,’ combined with the announcement putting the Biden administration's ‘Woke Green Agenda’ under reconsideration, marks the ‘most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.’”
New York Post
Steven Nelson
“WASHINGTON — President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency began the process Wednesday of rescinding vehicle fuel efficiency standards that Republicans have called a de facto ‘electric vehicle mandate,’ The Post has learned.
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“The EPA is re-evaluating policies enacted last year by the Biden administration meant to reduce emissions for light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles.
“The estimated regulatory and compliance cost of the current rules comes to $700 billion.
“‘The American auto industry has been hamstrung by the crushing regulatory regime of the last administration,’ EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told The Post.
“‘As we reconsider nearly $1 trillion of regulatory costs, we will abide by the rule of law to protect consumer choice and the environment.’
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“A similarly sweeping emissions policy was revealed last year for new trucks and tractors, drawing concern about the ability of companies to comply without significant economic impact.”
The National Review
EPA Administrator to Overhaul Obama-Era Finding on Greenhouse Gases, in Major Deregulatory Move
Audrey Fahlberg
“Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, in coordination with several other agencies, announced Wednesday that he is overhauling the ‘Endangerment Finding,’ a 2009 rule signed by Barack Obama’s EPA administrator Lisa Jackson that declared greenhouse gases constitute a threat to public health and human welfare under the Clean Air Act.
“The agency’s reconsideration of the Obama-era finding will involve a massive overhaul of the regulations that fall under this rule, including vehicle emissions rules, National Review first reported.
“The major deregulatory move comes after President Trump signed an ‘Unleashing American Energy’ executive order recommending reconsideration of the rule, along with a suite of other executive actions to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords and end subsidies for electric vehicles.
“Zeldin’s decision to upend the Endangerment Finding will also involve a wide-ranging reconsideration of climate-related rules, including regulations governing wastewater in coal plants, mercury and toxic air standards, vehicle emissions standards, the pace of state permit reviews, and the mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The EPA will also overhaul the “Social Cost of Carbon,” a metric used under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to weigh the costs and benefits of carbon dioxide pollution on the economy.
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“‘The Trump Administration will not sacrifice national prosperity, energy security, and the freedom of our people for an agenda that throttles our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choice while benefiting adversaries overseas,’ Zeldin said in a statement. ‘We will follow the science, the law, and common sense wherever it leads, and we will do so while advancing our commitment towards helping to deliver cleaner, healthier, and safer air, land, and water.’”
Daily Caller
EXCLUSIVE: Trump EPA Targets Key Regulatory Lever Driving Democrats’ Climate Agenda
Nick Pope
“The Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is revisiting the ‘social cost of carbon’ metric used by the Biden administration to foist costly regulations on the American economy, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
“The ‘social cost of carbon’ is the government-determined economic cost to society per unit of carbon dioxide emissions, and it is considered a powerful regulatory tool because of its immense impact on cost-benefit analyses that underpin emissions rules and regulations. The Biden administration estimated that the ‘social cost of carbon’ is approximately $190 per ton, but new EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says that the agency will be reevaluating the metric and its use in line with President Donald Trump’s day-one ‘Unleashing American Energy’ executive order.
“‘The Biden-Harris Administration’s so-called ‘social cost of carbon’ measurement was used to advance their climate agenda in a way that imposed major costs. To Power the Great American Comeback, we are fully committed to removing regulations holding back the U.S.,’ Zeldin said in a statement obtained by the DCNF.
“Trump’s executive order specifically instructed the EPA to evaluate the possibility of scrapping the ‘social cost of carbon’ metric from the regulatory space altogether within 60 days. Zeldin and the EPA are now officially revisiting the matter, with Zeldin’s statement implying that the agency may look to eliminate it altogether, though it is currently unclear what the overhaul may ultimately look like if implemented.
“In a Wednesday post to X teasing the announcement, Zeldin wrote that ‘today is going to be the most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.’
“The ‘Unleashing American Energy’ executive order characterized the metric as ‘marked by logical deficiencies, a poor basis in empirical science, politicization, and the absence of a foundation in legislation.’ The Obama administration was the first to incorporate the ‘social cost of carbon’ into the regulatory state, according to Stanford Report.
“The first Trump administration estimated that the ‘social cost of carbon’ was somewhere between $1 and $6 per ton of carbon dioxide, a far cry from the $51 estimate put forth by the Obama administration, according to Columbia University’s Global Center for Energy Policy.”
Breitbart
Sean Moran
“EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Wednesday announced he would move to clear the hundreds of backlogged cases to clean air, saying the Biden administration focused on ‘ideological pursuits’ rather than the agency’s ‘core mission.’
“The agency said it would commit to working with states and tribes to resolve the hundreds of backlogged State Implementation Plans (SIPs) and Tribal Implementation Plans (TIPs) the Biden-Harris administration could not or would not resolve. At the end of the Biden administration, there were 685 unresolved SIPs with 322 considered overdue.
“‘The Biden Administration’s focus on ideological pursuits instead of the agency’s core mission and statutory duties resulted in a delay of air quality improvement,’ the EPA administrator wrote in a statement. ‘With more than 140 million Americans living in nonattainment areas around the country, cooperative federalism and clearing out the State Implementation Plan backlog will make significant strides to improving the air we breathe.’
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“The EPA said it would work with, and not against, states and tribes to ensure that air quality is protected, while growing the economy to include development of high-tech manufacturing such as semiconductor fabrication and artificial intelligence (AI) development.
“This is just the latest move in the EPA and Zeldin’s efforts to ensure Americans have clean air while ‘powering the Great American Comeback.’
“Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle explained in his exclusive interview with Zeldin in February:
“Zeldin and his team are exclusively announcing this new initiative — titled ‘Powering the Great American Comeback’ — here on Breitbart News. The initiative has five major pillars. The first is pushing for ‘Clean Air, Land, and Water for Every American.’ The second is to ‘Restore American Energy Dominance,’ and the third is for ‘Permitting Reform, Cooperative Federalism, and Cross-Agency Partnership.”’ The fourth pillar is to ‘Make the United States the Artificial Intelligence Capital of the World,’ and the fifth is ‘Protecting and Bringing Back American Auto Jobs.’
“‘The EPA is going to aggressively pursue an agenda powering the Great American Comeback. That is our agenda we wanted to announce with you — that’s what we call it, that’s our purpose, and it’s what will keep us up at night. EPA wants to help power that Great American Comeback. President Trump, as the leader of our country and the great American people, has earned that mandate. It’s up to the EPA to ensure we’re doing our part to make sure we deliver on that,’ Zeldin said at the time.”
Free Beacon
Trump EPA Set To Reverse Biden's Crackdown on Coal-Fired Power Plants in 'Lifeline' to Industry
Thomas Catenacci
“The EPA will announce Wednesday that it is reconsidering federal regulations the Biden administration put forward as part of its crackdown on coal-fired power plants, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. The announcement tees up a likely overhaul of the rules.
“The EPA is reviewing the so-called Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which the Biden administration finalized in April 2024. Those standards expanded upon similar regulations set by the Obama administration years prior and were a central pillar of the Biden administration's efforts to regulate coal-fired power plants under its green energy agenda.
“The EPA's review of the standards is a major salvo in the Trump administration's efforts to gut Biden-era environmental regulations in pursuit of its "energy dominance" agenda. Just days after taking office in January, Trump signaled that part of the agenda would involve enabling the industry to boost coal-fired power production to ensure electric grid reliability.
"‘EPA needs to pursue commonsense regulation to Power the Great American Comeback, not continue down the last administration’s path of destruction and destitution,’ EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement shared with the Free Beacon.
"‘At EPA, we are committed to protecting human health and the environment; we are opposed to shutting down clean, affordable and reliable energy for American families,’ he continued.
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“According to the coal power industry group America's Power, the Biden-era Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will increase compliance costs, raise electricity prices, and could lead to additional retirements of coal-fired electric generating units.
“The Biden rule was cheered at the time by climate activist groups that have advocated for a transition from reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation to reliance on green energy sources like wind and solar.
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“Overall, while the coal industry has faced an onslaught of regulations, coal-fired power plants still generate more than 16 percent of the nation's electricity, according to federal data. Wind power generates about 10 percent of total electricity while solar power produces just 4 percent.”