Trump EPA Rule Places No Value on Americans’ Health and Well-Being

Yesterday, President Trump, EPA Administrator Zeldin, and two other administration officials stood in a room full of journalists to announce that they were repealing EPA’s Endangerment Finding – the bedrock determination that climate pollution harms human health and welfare, which is the basis for commonsense standards to reduce that pollution.  

It was noteworthy who didn’t speak at the announcement – any health or medical experts, state or local officials, business leaders, labor groups, faith leaders, or any of the hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country who raised serious concerns about EPA’s damaging actions. 

The Trump administration didn’t actually release the rule until late last night, after many people had already gone to bed. The rule underscores some things we’ve already seen from this administration, like that it places no value on Americans’ health and well-being. But it reveals other things as well, like that the repeal of the Endangerment Finding will make life more expensive for Americans.   

Disregarding health and climate harms  

In January, the Trump political leadership announced that, when setting limits on air pollutants that cause disease and early deaths, only the costs for companies to comply will be considered. Yesterday, EPA doubled down on that approach, claiming that harms like death and disease are too uncertain to estimate and so effectively assigning them no value. In fact, the administration’s regulatory impact analysis only includes one reference to “health” at all.  

EPA is also claiming that reducing emissions from the U.S. transportation sector – the largest source of U.S. climate pollution and one of the largest sources in the world – would be futile. However, that is simply not the case. The administration’s damaging actions will result in substantial pollution increases and devastating health and climate harms that will reach into the trillions of dollars.  

Earlier this week, EDF released an analysis showing that repealing the Endangerment Finding and all motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards would lead to up to $4.2 trillion in climate harms and up to 58,000 premature deaths.   

At yesterday’s announcement, in response to concerns over public health impacts, President Trump summed up the administration’s position, saying “I tell [Americans] ‘Don’t worry about it because it has nothing to do with public health.’” But we all know otherwise.   

We know that climate pollution endangers health and welfare because Americans across the country have seen its devastating impacts first-hand. Courts know it too. The Supreme Court was unequivocal in Massachusetts v. EPA that greenhouse gases, which cause climate change, are unambiguously air pollutants. Since then, courts have repeatedly and consistently rejected attacks on EPA’s Endangerment Finding and legal authority to protect Americans from climate pollution.  

Imposing high costs on Americans

There are other things the administration has tried to hide or has outright misrepresented. One of the most consequential is the way that the repeal of the Endangerment Finding and motor vehicle emission standards will increase costs for Americans. The administration’s own analysis, released with its rule last night, makes clear that repealing limits on climate pollution from cars will increase costs to consumers, not lower them. 

The analysis shows that Americans will be forced to spend $180 billion more on fuel and maintenance, even after considering the pollution reducing technologies auto makers will no longer have to put on cars. (Table A-2, page 28 of RIA) 

EPA’s analyses ignore or minimize the huge fuel costs its rule would impose, on the grounds that those costs don’t matter to consumers. But, just like with the administration’s efforts to ignore climate and health, pretending these costs don’t exist doesn’t make them any less real or damaging.  

EDF’s new analysis shows Americans will face higher costs because of the Trump administration repeals – $1.4 trillion more in fuel costs overall. That means the administration’s actions will force Americans to spend up to $3,700 more over the lifetime of a new 2030 passenger vehicle, even after considering the clean technologies manufacturers would no longer need to put on new cars. These substantial costs are on top of the trillions of dollars in health and climate harms that administration’s actions will impose. 

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The administration has made clear that they place no value on people’s health and well-being and that, according to their own analysis, they are willing to impose higher costs on Americans. It is no wonder that no one else was standing alongside the President and administration officials to support the announcement of these repeals, or that the rule was not released until the dead of night.