Results Of Destroying The Endangerment Finding For Greenhouse Gases "Cannot Be Overstated"
EDIT
Pat Parenteau is an emeritus professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School and was EPA regional counsel under President Ronald Reagan. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
JENNI DOERING: What are the likely consequences for public health and the climate of the EPA decision to rescind this finding?
PAT PARENTEAU: The consequences cannot be overstated, and they’re negative. By repealing the endangerment finding, you’re knocking out the foundation for all of the federal government’s regulation of carbon pollution and greenhouse gases, whether it’s oil refineries, cement plants—every source you can think of that’s putting this kind of pollution into the atmosphere. This removes the ability of EPA to regulate any of it. When Trump announced this repeal of the endangerment finding at his press conference, he and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin were bragging about the fact that this was the largest deregulatory effort in the history of the country. Right along with that—and they didn’t acknowledge this—it’s the most devastating decision by the federal government endangering public health and welfare in the history of the country.
Here are some of the statistics: Eighteen billion tons of pollution will be in the air we breathe and in the atmosphere [by 2055], driving climate change as a result of this decision, if it holds. Fifty-eight thousand additional deaths will occur as a result of this, and those deaths will come from the effects of climate change, like heat waves, floods, fires, drought—but there are also lots of other kinds of illnesses, respiratory illnesses. There will be 37 million more asthma attacks on Americans as a result of this decision.
Those are some of the health effects, but the impacts go well beyond that. They’re going to increase fuel prices by an estimated 25 cents per gallon by 2035, if this holds. That can result in $1.7 trillion impacts on consumers. Again, Trump was bragging about the fact that this decision saves $1 trillion, but that’s just the cost of compliance for industry. It ignores the cost of climate change.
EDIT
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21022026/epa-endangerment-finding-repeal-health-climate-consequences/