The Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to abolish or undermine more than two dozen regulations could directly hit California’s policies regarding Air Force and water quality standards, electric vehicle initiatives, and efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions that eliminate the planet.
According to Lee Zeldin, President Trump’s new EPA administrator, the changes announced this week are directed at rolling back trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and hidden taxes for US families.
However, environmental groups quickly denounced the plan as a waiver of the EPA’s liability against Americans. In climate-oriented California, they say, it could reverse decades of progress.
“This is not just a step back. It’s a wrecking ball aimed at decades of progress,” said Guillermo Ortiz, a senior clean vehicle advocate for Natural Resources Defense Council. “California’s leadership on clean energy and environmental justice is under direct siege by the federal government.”
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Among the 31 items for rethinking is the long-standing conclusions of the EPA that carbon dioxide emissions endanger human health and welfare, officially known as “danger detection,” established in 2009.
California is actively present in efforts to curb CO2, including state laws that require a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030 and state laws that require a 85% reduction by 2045. The state aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2045.
Zeldin called the dangerous discovery “the holy grail of climate change religion.”
California has set an even more aggressive target than the federal government with the goal of banning gas vehicles from sale by 2035. This is a move the Trump administration is already trying to block.
(For Nick Agro/Times)
“We drive our daggers straight at the heart of climate change religion,” he said.
The EPA’s plan aims to report emissions annually with the Clean Power Plan, an Obama- and Biden-era policy that seeks to reduce emissions from coal- and natural gas-fueled power plants, and the forced greenhouse gas reporting program that forces around 8,000 large greenhouse gas emitters, such as power plants and factories.
“We drive our daggers straight at the heart of climate change religion.”
– Lee Zeldin, EPA Administrator
California has nearly 400 of these reporting facilities, gaining efforts to reduce emissions in recent years. The state facility reported 92.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2023, compared to 106.1 million tonnes of CO2 emissions 10 years ago.
Abolishing such programs, and potentially undermining the discovery of danger, would be similar to “denying the concept of gravity,” Ortiz said.
“It’s not deregulation, it’s a science denial.
However, the EPA does not focus solely on emissions from large power plants and oil and gas producers. Chopping blocks also have rules that govern vehicle emissions, the largest source of air pollution in the Golden State.
Among other changes, the EPA is about to close the standards surrounding light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles that provide the basis for Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, which sets the EVS targets that make up half of the vehicles sold in the US by 2030.
Zeldin said current federal rules will impose more than $700 billion on regulatory and compliance costs, and the EV mandate will deprive Americans of their ability to choose a vehicle of their choice, while increasing the cost of all the products the truck offers.
California has set even more aggressive targets than the federal government for adopting EVs, with Gavin Newsom’s mission banning gas cars from being sold by 2035. This is a move the Trump administration is already trying to block.
“California has been a major state in moving forward with the clean transportation industry and market,” said John Boselle, president of Calstart, a Clean Transportation nonprofit.
The EPA aims to end the standards surrounding light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles that provide the basis for Biden’s electric vehicle targets.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
Boesel said the January EPA was unable to act on a plan known as the Advanced Clean Fleets rules.
However, the new changes could potentially infringe federal tax incentives, hinder the expansion of national charging infrastructure and create more hurdles for California’s EV transition by spurring fossil fuel production.
“A lot of effort has been put into developing regulations and setting the future direction for the US, and many companies have made significant investments in the future of cleaner transportation,” Boselle said. “Having this kind of regulatory uncertainty will undermine a lot of investment and perhaps thwart innovation.”
Mike Stalker, the top official of the California and Southwest Pacific EPA in the previous Trump administration, downplayed the impact on California, but said Golden State can continue to set higher standards than the federal government.
“A common issue is that most states that are very strong in their environments, like California, whatever the minimum standard that the EPA regulates, “those types of behavior have a much greater impact on situations where we have more choices of minimum standards.”
According to him, the goal is to eliminate costly and time-consuming rules and regulations, and ensure that what remains is backed up by the best possible science.
Stalker also said the deregulation announcement is not directed towards electric vehicles, but rather to enable consumers to direct the market.
“Their message is that they don’t want the government to subsidize electric vehicles before the market really demands it,” he said.
However, according to NRDC’s Ortiz, federal regulations do not exist in vacuum. 31 regulatory measures also occur along with job cuts and efforts to reduce California’s authority to set tailpipe emissions. Furthermore, carbon dioxide and other contaminants do not take into account the line of status.
“California’s climate goals and our air quality advancements are the world’s beacons, and robbing these EPA rules is like opening holes in that lighthouse.”
– Guillermo Ortiz, Senior Clean Vehicle defends the Natural Resources Defense Council
“California’s climate goals and our air quality advancements are the world’s beacons, and robbing these EPA rules is like opening a hole in that lighthouse,” Ortiz said. “We’re talking more about asthma in Fresno. We’re talking about fatal wildfires. We’re stopping the EV transition that’s happening.”
The EPA’s plan aims to other popular issues in California, such as environmental justice and air and water quality standards. The agency is about to end environmental justice and diversity, equity and comprehensive arms, Zeldin said.
California is home to some of the world’s worst air quality, leaving behind low-income communities in the state for decades and communities of color disproportionately burdened by pollution, extreme heat, wildfire smoke and other environmental challenges, with experts fearing that changes at the federal level could exacerbate those issues.
Wildfire smoke drifts through Los Angeles in September 2020.
(Brian van der Bragg/Los Angeles Times)
In fact, Zeldin said the department will reconsider air toxicity standards targeting coal-fired plants and domestic air quality standards regulating six harmful pollutants. These contaminants include particulate matter 2.5 or soot material released from vehicles, industrial chimneys, and wildfires.
The PM 2.5 was one of the best air quality concerns following the January fire in Los Angeles. Just a year ago, the Biden administration’s EPA tightened its particulate matter rules with a move that said it would prevent thousands of early deaths.
Additionally, the EPA’s plan to amend “US water” applicable to the 1972 Federal Cleanwater Act could revoke some of the state’s hard-working and excellent water quality benefits.
The rules govern water quality and discharge requirements for farmers, landowners and businesses. Zeldin said it would put an excessive burden on Americans and raise the costs of their businesses.
Opponents said loosening of these guidelines could make the water system more vulnerable to dangerous contaminants and discharge, especially in the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision that federal protections for wetlands support property rights.
The EPA said it would amend the definition of “US water” that applies to the 1972 Federal Clean Water Act.
(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
“We can’t sit sloppy while the U.S. Supreme Court, and now the federal administration, take measures calculated to compromise the federal clean water laws and the protections it has provided for decades,” Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, said in a statement.
Allen recently introduced legislation to state law that disgraces previous federal protections that were removed by the Supreme Court. These and other lack of protections could threaten the health and well-being of millions of Californians, he said.
However, experts warned that the proposed changes to the EPA cannot be unilaterally imposed, saying the due process must listen and respond to the scientific and legal justification of each decision, as well as public feedback. Many of the changes could face long legal challenges from opposition groups.
Boesel of Calstart said he is optimistic that California will continue to advance towards climate change despite the potentially bumpy paths. However, he emphasized that it is important for the EPA to continue to demonstrate leadership at the national and global level.
“The United States accounts for about 5% of the world’s population and generates almost 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “So the US is truly a global team player and we need to do what we can to avoid climate disasters.”
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