Businesses face 'chaos' as EPA aims to repeal its authority over climate pollution
Source: NPR
August 19, 2025 5:39 AM ET
The Trump administration's plan to undo a landmark finding that climate pollution threatens public health and welfare poses lots of risks for corporate America. The Environmental Protection Agency's endangerment finding has served as the legal basis for federal climate regulations under the Clean Air Act since 2009. The finding concludes that the accumulation of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere endangers people's health and the well-being of communities.
Reaching that determination was a prerequisite to set limits for the pollution. Getting rid of that authority would lead to the repeal of "all greenhouse gas standards" at the federal level, according to the EPA, amounting, it says, to "one of the largest deregulatory actions in American history." Companies have long complained that the government's efforts to rein in heat-trapping pollution are impractical.
But a lot of businesses want the EPA to be in charge of setting national standards of some kind, according to proponents and legal experts, because it helps shield them from lawsuits and creates a predictable environment in which to make big, long-term investments.
"I look at what the administration wants to accomplish with regards to our national security and winning the AI race — we want to have expansive energy production. We have that opportunity. We can do that affordably, and we can do it while we're managing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions," says Lisa Jacobson, president of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, whose members include major electricity producers and a trade group for the natural gas industry. "I would like to focus more on that, than changes to these regulatory policies," Jacobson says, "which will cause disruption in planning and moving forward with projects we need today."
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/08/19/nx-s1-5501576/climate-pollution-epa-regulation-endangerment-finding
Link to EPA NEWS RELEASE - ICYMI: EPA Launches the Largest Deregulatory Actions in U.S. History with Proposal to Rescind Obama-Era Endangerment Finding
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