The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) effort to repeal the endangerment finding through rulemaking faces legal risks due to the agency’s reliance on a Department of Energy (DOE) report that questioned whether science supported the Obama-era conclusion that human-induced emissions endanger public health and welfare. Former EPA officials and specialists in regulatory law say the agency is likely to remove the DOE report from the rule before it’s finalized early next year.
If EPA doesn’t cite the DOE report in the final repeal or if it is barred from doing so, the agency probably can’t offer a new scientific basis that justifies the draft’s conclusion that human-made greenhouse gas emissions don’t endanger public health without delaying the final rules for months, Bracewell’s Jeff Holmstead told E&E News.
“I think they would have a problem in court if they didn’t give the public the opportunity to comment on the basis of their rules,” said Holmstead.
