Trump’s Climate Liberation Act

Removing Obama’s ‘endangerment’ finding makes it harder to ban fossil-fuel energy

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"in 2007 a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that greenhouse gases qualify as pollutants under the Clean Air Act."

"greenhouse gases aren’t toxic and don’t affect air quality, unlike pollutants that the law expressly directs the EPA to regulate."

"The impact of greenhouse gases on global temperatures is intermediated by such factors as cloud cover and urbanization, and the effect on storms is disputed. In any event, curbing CO2 emissions in the U.S. will have scant impact on climate because emissions are rapidly rising in China, India and developing countries."

"The Great Scalia observed in dissent that “regulating the buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the upper reaches of the atmosphere . . . is not akin to regulating the concentration of some substance that is polluting the air.”"

"the endangerment finding also violates the Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine."

"express authorization from Congress is required for economically and politically significant executive actions. A 6-3 majority invoked the doctrine in West Virginia v. EPA (2022), which struck down the Obama-era CO2 emissions limits for power plants."