• Followingthree of the warmest years on record, as scientists reckon withclimate tipping pointsand states and cities grapple with the escalating cost ofextreme weatherand more intensewildfires, the Trump administration this week is expected to formally eliminate the US government’s role in controlling greenhouse gas pollution. • By revoking its 17-year-old scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, the Environmental Protection Agency will demolish the legal underpinning of its authority to act on climate change under the Clean Air Act. • EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will be alongside President Donald Trump for an event Wednesday focused onboosting US use of coal, as mercury and air toxics standards are repealed. • That is expected to be a prelude to Zeldin finalizingthe endangerment finding repeal, an assignment the president handed him in an executive order signed on the first day of his second term in office. • “President Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. • The move marks a far more radical retreat on climate change compared to the steps to weaken regulations that were taken in Trump’s first term.
Article Summaries:
- The Trump administration is set to formally repeal the EPA’s 17‑year‑old “endangerment” finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare, stripping the agency of its Clean Air Act authority to regulate climate‑related pollution. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will join President Trump at a Wednesday event that also announces the rollback of mercury and air‑toxic standards, a prelude to the endangerment repeal ordered by the president on his first day in office. Climate advocates and Democratic states warn the move will undermine Biden‑era regulations and make future climate action harder, while citing increased health and environmental risks for communities.
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