Yesterday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency will undertake 31 historic actions in the “greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history,” mostly aimed at reducing or eliminating regulations regarding air pollution, energy production for coal plants, and DEI.

Of these actions, one of the most consequential is rolling back the “Endangerment Finding, ” a scientific finding by the EPA under the Obama administration that concluded planet-warming greenhouse gases (GHGs) endanger public health and welfare. The Endangerment Finding is the lynchpin that allows GHGs to be regulated under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA), both for mobile sources (cars, trucks, airplanes, etc.) and for stationary (industrial) sources, like power plants. Absent such a finding, the EPA lacks authority to regulate GHGs under the CAA.

If the Endangerment Finding is modified such that it concludes GHGs no longer endanger public health and welfare, then there is no authority under the CAA for regulation of GHGs for power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0) and no authority for methane regulation under Subpart QuadO (OOOO b/c) of the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS).

Air contaminants other than GHGs are also affected. EPA has indicated they are rolling back Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that improperly targeted coal-fired power plants (MATS), Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards (PM 2.5 NAAQS), and multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs). However, this does not mean that the non-GHG contaminants will no longer be regulated under the CAA – it merely means the standards that are applicable to those contaminants will be lessened.

The roll backs also affect safety regulation at refineries (Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule that made America’s oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe – Risk Management Program Rule) and waste issues at coal-fired electric utility steam generating units (EGUs) (Prioritizing coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations – CCR Rule).

There is finally a number of actions intended to simplify the burden on the states and tribes themselves to comply with the CAA.

The cumulative effect of these roll backs will be to (1) eliminate the authority to regulate GHGs under the CAA and (2) mitigate the regulatory burden on the energy sector by reducing (but not eliminating) recent increases in regulatory limits.