By Chris Talgo
When it comes to their views and policies concerning so-called climate change, President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama stand far apart.
Trump is a climate realist who understands that conventional power sources like coal and natural gas are pivotal to America’s grid stability and will play a big role in the forthcoming AI arms race.
Obama, on the other hand, is a staunch climate alarmist who derides conventional power sources and favors “green” energy.
During his two terms, Obama enacted several policies that subsidized uncompetitive, unneeded, and unwanted green energy while placing onerous regulations on fossil fuels. During his first term, Trump tried to reverse much of the Obama administration’s anti-fossil fuel actions.
However, there was only so much that could be done given the constant distractions Trump faced throughout his first term.
One of the most consequential environmental regulations that Trump was unable to eliminate was Obama’s “Endangerment Finding.”
Most Americans have probably never heard of the Endangerment Finding. But this obscure rule has effectively allowed the federal government to label carbon dioxide a harmful “pollutant” that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
Unfortunately, a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed the Obama administration to enact the rule in the first place.
In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that “greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act and that EPA must determine whether or not emissions of greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”
Although this is the standard reading of the ruling, it is not totally accurate. According to the majority opinion, written by former Justice John Paul Stevens, “We need not and do not reach the question whether on remand EPA must make an endangerment finding, or whether policy concerns can inform EPA’s actions in the event that it makes such a finding. We hold only that EPA must ground its reasons for action or inaction in the statute.”
So, the 2007 decision did not determine that carbon dioxide is a harmful air pollutant. Rather, it granted that the EPA has the authority to determine if carbon dioxide is a harmful greenhouse gas based solely upon unequivocal data.
ALSO READ: EPA Moves to Eliminate the Basis for a Trillion Dollars of Climate Change Regulations
Trump’s EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, has made rescinding the Endangerment Finding a priority.
“A lot of people are out there listening, they might not know what the endangerment finding is. If you ask congressional Democrats to describe what it is, the left would say that it means that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, carbon dioxide is an endangerment to human health. They might say methane is a pollutant, methane is an endangerment to human health,” Zeldin said on the Ruthless podcast.
“That’s an oversimplified, I would say inaccurate way to describe it,” Zeldin added. “The Obama administration said that carbon dioxide, when mixed with a bunch of other well-mixed gases, greenhouse gases, that it contributes to climate change. How much? They don’t say… they say that climate change engenders human health, so because of these different mental leaps… then there were all sorts of vehicle regulations that followed.”
Zeldin said repealing the Endangerment Finding is like “basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.” That is music to my ears.
It is also great news for Americans.
Climate alarmists and environmental zealots claim that carbon dioxide emissions must be eliminated no matter the cost.
They are wrong. By denigrating CO2 and attempting to regulate it to death, they have harmed tens of millions of Americans with higher energy bills. Moreover, their silly belief that carbon dioxide is a harmful air pollutant has put the entire U.S. energy grid at risk.
As we enter the AI era, the demand for dependable and affordable energy is going to rise rapidly.
As of now, natural gas and coal are the best sources to power America into the AI age.
In “Affordable, Reliable, and Clean: An Objective Scorecard to Assess Competing Energy Sources,” Heartland Institute President James Taylor notes, “Affordable, reliable, and clean are the foundational elements of sound energy policy. An in-depth analysis of seven common electrical power sources reveals that natural gas makes the most sense according to the affordable, reliable, and clean standard, with nuclear, hydro, and coal not far behind. Biomass trails by a moderate margin while wind and solar stand apart as the least desirable power sources.”
Fortunately, the Trump administration knows that natural gas and coal are vital to America’s future. With the Endangerment Finding on the chopping block, the United States is even better position to achieve energy dominance, which will pave the way to American AI supremacy.
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is leading America into the “Golden Age” as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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