Behind the E.P.A.’s Rush to Repeal the Endangerment Finding

Lee Zeldin will move on Thursday to repeal the E.P.A.’s endangerment finding, a scientific determination that requires the federal government to regulate greenhouse gases. The action, completed in just over a year, is unusually swift for an agency that typically spends at least three years on such efforts, and legal experts say the pace could be intended to bring related challenges to the Supreme Court while Mr.

Trump remains in office. The endangerment finding concluded that carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases are a threat to public health and welfare and required the federal government to regulate these gases, which result from the burning of oil, gas and coal.

In 2009 E.P.A. researchers laid out more than 200 pages of evidence showing how rising concentrations of greenhouse gases were intensifying storms, floods, wildfires and sea level rise, contributing to disease and death. The administration’s proposed repeal is not expected to discredit the scientific consensus.

United States

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