The Trump administration will release a proposal in the coming days that it hopes will topple the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate rules. However, if EPA pins too many regulatory rollbacks to its bid to revoke the so-called endangerment finding, the agency exposes itself to the possibility that many of those rule repeals won’t hold up in court.
Bracewell’s Jeff Holmstead, who led EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation under former President George W. Bush, told Politico that EPA appeared to be poised to revoke all of the vehicle emissions rules on the basis of its revocation of the endangerment finding.
“If so, this puts the auto companies in a tough spot,” he said. If the courts strike down the reversal of the endangerment finding, he said, then car and truck standards “spring back in place,” leaving companies fewer years to comply with the original standards.
