By revoking its 17-year-old scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will demolish the legal underpinning of its authority to act on climate change under the Clean Air Act.
State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to find the culprit — then closed the case.
The administration ended a program that documented excessive levels of a carcinogen at industrial facilities across the country. Environmental groups who say the move leaves polluted communities behind have filed suit.
Indonesia’s steel industry is becoming one of the country’s fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, even as it receives far less public attention than other carbon-intensive sectors.
The “Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence” — updated for the first time in 15 years — eliminates some 90 pages about climate science and comes just as numerous climate cases make their way through state and federal courts.
With its plans to revoke the endangerment finding, the administration is gambling that the U.S. Supreme Court will allow it to completely avoid regulating the nation’s top greenhouse gas sources.
