NRDC Rebuts Trump EPA’s Bid to Brush Off Climate

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In hundreds of pages of detailed comments filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and its partners detailed the myriad legal and technical flaws with the Trump administration’s plan to rescind the determination that climate change poses a threat to human health and welfare.  

As the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded just days ago, the 2009 Endangerment Finding was accurate when first decided and has been reinforced by even stronger evidence since then. The conclusion is now “beyond scientific dispute,” the National Academies panel concluded. 

“The EPA grasps at straws to explain away its statutory obligation under the Clean Air Act and muddies the water with bogus science, but its rushed and opaque rulemaking process cannot hide that its proposed repeal is contrary to law, science, and basic common sense,” the environmental groups said in their 221-page comments. 
 
NRDC was joined by the Center for Biological Diversity, Clean Air Task Force, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, and Sierra Club in its filing. These groups are not alone. More than 600 witnesses testified over four days of public hearings in August—97 percent of them opposing the EPA’s proposals. And more than 350,000 individuals and organizations filed public comments, overwhelmingly against the EPA’s retreat.  

In addition to the substantive criticisms, the groups highlight how the EPA has violated fundamental principles of administrative law: rushing its process; relying on a report prepared by a secret panel set up in an illegal manner; and failing to discuss its divergence from recommendations from the National Academies. 

“The EPA’s irrational and rushed process would leave Americans exposed to the worst climate impacts just as we are all seeing the evidence up close. Whether it’s flooding in North Carolina or heat waves in Phoenix, climate change is here and we need to tackle it,” said Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at NRDC. “What the EPA is doing is clearly against the law, and if it follows through with this approach, we will see them in court.” 

Separately, NRDC filed comments detailing why the EPA should also abandon its paired plans to eliminate carbon pollution standards for cars and trucks. Those comments detail how nixing those rules will mean higher costs for drivers, fewer American jobs, more asthma and heart disease, and greater amounts of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Without even considering the health and climate lost benefits, repealing the rules would mean an additional $257 billion in fuel and maintenance costs for drivers over the next 25 years if realistic fuel prices are used.  

Overall, repealing the standards would mean the loss of $3.38 trillion in net societal benefits by 2050, an analysis prepared for NRDC by the consulting firm ERM found.  

“Clean car standards are a win-win proposition. They address the largest source of climate pollution, while also saving drivers on their fuel and maintenance costs,” said Kathy Harris, clean vehicles director at NRDC. “Repealing them might appease the oil industry, but the rest of us will suffer with more air pollution, more extreme storms and heat waves—and more trips to fill up at the gas station.”  

Comments were due yesterday for the EPA’s plan to rescind the endangerment finding and vehicle rules. The EPA must now consider these comments before deciding if it will finalize its proposal. The agency has said it plans to do so by the end of the year.  

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).