Norquist Praises New Wave of Deregulatory Action at EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Wednesday that the agency is taking 31 distinct actions to roll back harmful regulations, including the 2009 Endangerment Finding, in what he calls the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”

“Administrator Zeldin’s bold deregulatory action at EPA will unleash American energy and reduce costs for American families. The Obama administration’s faulty Endangerment Finding has been used as justification for years to stifle the production and use of energy in America. Thanks to President Trump and Administrator Zeldin, the government’s expensive web of overregulation is being unwoven,” said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform.

The EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding declared that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide constitute a threat to “public health and welfare.” In making the finding, EPA did not consider any of the costs that would result from the application of the finding to future regulations, particularly those related to vehicle emissions. Since 2009, the agency has used the Endangerment Finding to justify seven different regulations placed on vehicles, totaling more than $1 trillion in aggregate costs.

As part of the Executive Order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” President Trump instructed the EPA to review the 2009 Endangerment Finding and submit recommendations on its future applicability. In a press release published on Wednesday, the EPA under Administrator Zeldin’s leadership announced its “intent to reconsider the 2009 Endangerment Finding.”

“It is in the best interest of the American people for EPA to ensure that any finding and regulations are based on the strongest scientific and legal foundation. The reconsideration of the Endangerment Finding and EPA’s regulations that have relied on it furthers this interest,” the press release explains.

EPA announced 30 other deregulatory actions on Wednesday alongside the reconsideration of the Endangerment Finding, including reconsideration of the Biden-era Clean Power Plan 2.0 regulations that targeted domestic power plants, reconsideration of vehicle emissions regulations that “provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate,” and ending the so-called “Good Neighbor Plan” that would have made fossil fuel production more expensive.

President Biden implemented almost $2 trillion in new regulations during his time in office, 72 percent of which were implemented through the EPA. The wave of deregulatory efforts announced by Administrator Zeldin this week will save Americans hundreds of billions of dollars while helping to make energy more available and more affordable.

President Trump made significant progress on chipping away at the bloated regulatory state in his first term, slashing nearly $200 billion in regulatory costs from 2017-2020. In his second term, the Trump administration has the opportunity to unleash the free market to an even greater extent through deregulation and boost prosperity for all Americans.