In December, we wrote on how the EPA may be trying to erode the strength of the 2009 determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, aka the endangerment finding, by opening a comment period asking for input on the accuracy of its interpretation.
Then, a few weeks ago, well-known denier John Christy was named to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. “I think the endangerment finding is one that doesn’t stand on the best science that we have out there,” he told E&E.
How did someone who thinks burning fossil fuels is good for the planet get on the advisory board? Well the EPA political appointees invited him! And unfortunately, a judge ruled this week that the EPA’s policy of banning scientists who receive public funding is legal.
The timing suggests that with Christy installed as an advisor, the staunchest of denial organizations are breathing a little easier--while the rest of us choke on that much more pollution.
Dawn Reeves at InsideEPA reported this week that groups who had been calling for the endangerment finding to be overturned are now sort of feeling like it doesn’t matter. “You don’t have to overturn the endangerment finding,” former Peabody Energy official turned Heartland Institute lackey Fred Palmer told Reeves. “You just don’t have to enforce it.” We’d like to note the EPA’s enforcement is down to its lowest level in a decade.
And simply ignoring the law instead of trying to overturn it gives the EPA some semblance of cover, Palmer told Reeves. If the finding were to be revoked there would certainly be lawsuits. And though Palmer (laughably) claims the science is on his side, he recognizes that with the recent addition of Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court could conceivably cast a party line vote striking down the endangerment finding regardless of science.
Industry seems to be on board with this plan. In fact, an unnamed source told Reeves that he wouldn’t be surprised if industry trade groups had asked for the denial networks to stop pressing for the finding to be overturned.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (certainly a bad actor on climate, if not as rabid as Heartland) told Reeves the group has “never been focused on the endangerment finding” and instead are only interested in the Obama-era Clean Power Plan replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule.
But the endangerment finding is intrinsically linked to the ACE ruling. As the EPA Insider source put it, the EPA is “gonna have some ’splainin’ to do about” how the new rule meets the endangerment finding. The EPA’s own analysis shows that if implemented, the ruling could cause an additional 1,400 deaths every year by 2030 due to the increase smog and soot from dirty fossil fuels.
There’s a chance this whole charade may just be a fake-out until Wheeler is confirmed. Myron Ebell, who works for the Koch’s CEI, which has spearheaded the ask for endangerment reconsideration, said that until Wheeler gets voted in by the Senate, no one is going to be “uttering” the phrase “endangerment finding repeal.”
In other words, deniers won’t hound Wheeler about the endangerment finding just yet. But once he’s confirmed, he’s free to turn around and heed his fellow fossil fuel flunkies’ command.
And in the meantime, as Palmer points out, it’s not like the EPA is doing much to enforce the finding anyway. Which must be sad for all the career staff there, who no doubt would love to work towards, instead of against, the agency’s mission. Must be gloomy there, the mood dour, and this sort of thing just casting a further Palmer’ver the building.
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