Trump dismantles legal basis for US climate rules

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Feb 12) revoked a landmark scientific finding that underpins US regulations that curb planet-warming pollution, marking his biggest rollback of climate policy to date.

The repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding” was paired with the elimination of greenhouse gas standards on automobiles.

But it also places a host of other climate rules in jeopardy, including carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and methane leaks for oil and gas producers. 

Legal challenges are expected to follow swiftly.

CLIMATE CHANGE “A SCAM”

“This determination had no basis in fact, had none whatsoever, and no basis in law,” Trump said.

The president dismissed concerns that the repeal could cost lives by worsening climate change, reiterating his belief that human-caused global warming is a hoax: “I tell them, don’t worry about it, because it has nothing to do with public health, this was all a scam, a giant scam.”

The administration also framed the measure as a cost-saving move, claiming it would generate more than $1 trillion in regulatory savings and bring down new car costs by thousands of dollars.

The announcement immediately drew condemnation from Democrats and from green groups.

“This decision betrays the American people and cements the Republican Party’s status as the pro-pollution party,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom, seen as a possible presidential candidate. 

Manish Bapna, president of the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, told AFP it was the “single biggest attack in history on the United States federal government’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis.”