Endangerment Finding

Endangerment Unfound

By Ed Reid

The Clean Air Act (CAA) became law in 1970. It was later amended in 1970 and 1990. Congress considered including CO2 emissions under the Act but elected not to do so both during debate on the Act and during debates on the amendments.

Massachusetts and several other states and cities petitioned EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the CAA because they were “pollutants”. EPA rejected the petition because it was not authorized to regulate greenhouse gases under the CAA. In 2007, Massachusetts and several other states and cities sued EPA at the US Supreme Court to have EPA regulate greenhouse gases under the CAA. The Supreme Court ruled that EPA could regulate greenhouse gases under the CAA because they were “pollutants”. This ruling ignored the clear intent of Congress regarding the CAA.

US EPA issued an Endangerment Finding (EF) in 2009 regarding emissions of six key well mixed “greenhouse gases”. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). The EF was originally targeted at motor vehicle emissions. However, EPA has used it as the basis to control emissions from stationary sources as well.

The CAA requires EPA to base its actions on its own research. However, EPA relied on IPCC as the source of its research results. The EF was not based on observations, but rather on the output of computer models which themselves have proven to be inaccurate and largely unfit for purpose.

The CAA requires EPA to issue National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for pollutants subject to an EF. EPA has failed to issue the NAAQS for CO2 in the 16 years since the EF was issued. Development of an NAAQS for a “globally well-mixed trace gas” whose atmospheric concentration is increasing, largely driven by emissions from other nations, would be a monumental challenge, as would administering it.

The endangerment identified by EPA remains unfound in those 16 years. Public health and safety have not been diminished as a consequence of increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Heat-related deaths remain an order of magnitude lower than cold-related deaths. The frequency and severity of extreme weather events have not increased. The rate of sea level rise has not increased. The globe has greened, largely as a result of increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Crop yields have continued to increase, in part as the result of increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Research conducted by numerous research teams over the 16 years since the issuance of the EF suggests that the endangerment envisioned by the EPA EF was largely overblown. The climate is not as sensitive to increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations as the EF envisioned. Warming is not occurring as rapidly as reported by the “adjusted” near-surface temperature records or projected by the unverified and unvalidated climate models.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has recommended to President Trump that the 2009 EF be re-evaluated and either revised or rescinded. This action would not conflict with the 2007 Supreme Court decision, since the Court merely ruled that EPA could regulate CO2 under the CAA, not that it was required to do so.