Is EPA Going Away?

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced yesterday that the EPA would propose rescinding the 2009 so-called "Endangerment" finding by the Obama administration. This finding underpins every "climate change" and most automobile regulations issued since 2009 and, if successful, would effectively eradicate "climate change" regulation as a federal policy consideration. 

Zeldin is serious.

Be informed, not misled.

President Trump continues to do what he promised those who voted for him he would do if elected.

EPA Releases a proposal to rescind Obama-era Endangerment Finding, Regulations that paved the way for electric vehicle mandates.

If finalized, this proposal would undo the underpinning of $1 trillion in costly regulations and save more than $54 billion annually. According to Zeldin, this would be "the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States."

Using a visit to a truck dealership in Indianapolis with Governor Mike Braun as a backdrop, EPA Administrator Zeldin announced EPA's anticipated attempt to unravel the fragile underpinning for such things as EPA's electric vehicle mandate and the war on efficient air conditioners, water heaters, furnaces, and small gasoline tools like lawnmowers and leaf blowers.

The EPA announcement says, "Since the 2009 Endangerment Finding was issued, many have stated that the American people and auto manufacturing have suffered from significant uncertainties and massive costs related to general regulations of greenhouse gases from vehicles and trucks. Finally, EPA is proposing to provide much-needed certainty and regulatory relief, so companies can plan appropriately, and the American people can have affordable choices when deciding to buy a car."

“Over the last four years, conservative state attorneys general were the last line of defense in fighting back against the Biden administration’s federal overreach and green new scam agenda,” said Attorney General Todd Rokita. “However, thanks to President Trump and patriots like Administrator Zeldin and Secretary Wright, we are now on the front lines helping to unleash American energy.” 

Indeed, they are. They are also tightening the purse strings on charlatans like Al Gore and others who have personally enriched themselves by making movies and writing books telling all who would listen, "The Sky is falling, the sky is falling."

How much did Al Gore make off climate alarmism?

No one knows for sure, but a conservative estimate puts it at $300 million. I think it's much, much more.

And much of his "saving the planet" nonsense was corrupt and disingenuous. 

The New York Post, in a story published in 2023, said this:

The “green-friendly” investment firm co-founded and run by former Vice President Al Gore, 74, owns a portfolio of more than $26 billion worth of shares in nearly two dozen companies that were found to have increased greenhouse gas emissions in recent years, according to a report.

Gore, whose Oscar-winning film “An Inconvenient Truth” cemented his status as the most prominent doomsayer on climate change, chairs the London-based Generation Investment Management, which touts a “stated emphasis on sustainable investment options.”

But a recent analysis by Bloomberg News found that Generation’s Global Equity fund, which numbers a total of 42 companies, includes 18 firms that emitted increasingly more greenhouse gases annually between 2015 and 2021.

Bloomberg ranked Generation, which has $40.4 billion worth of assets under its management, as among the companies that owned the greatest share of greenhouse gas-emitting firms when compared to other funds that placed a priority on so-called ESG — environmental, social, and governance — investing.

Takeaway

If Zeldin pulls this off, and his EPA seems well prepared to do so, it will represent a sea change in the EPA's meddling in the US economy. The Court decision that set this travesty into motion was a 5-4 decision. All five of the majority are gone. The minority was Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito. Not only has the makeup of the Court changed, but numerous cases have arisen since Massachusetts v. EPA.  The decisions emphasized that major policy determinations must be made by Congress, not by administrative agencies.

The comment period closes in 45 days, after which the EPA will need to draft the new regulation and ensure it withstands legal scrutiny. If Zeldin pulls this off, it will cement President Trump's legacy of deregulation and represent a generational defeat for climate alarmists.

Consider this:

1. God is ultimately in control. Scripture is clear that God is sovereign over everything (Psalm 115:3), including the weather ( Psalm 148:8). We certainly can impact the environment, and we do, but we are not the “be-all and end-all” of what happens here on earth; God is, and his plan will triumph. And he has revealed the end—and life on earth won’t end by man-made climate change! It’ll end when God judges the earth with fire and creates new heavens and a new earth (2 Peter 3:1–13).

2. God has commanded us not to be afraid. It’s been pointed out before by many others that the Bible commands us not to be afraid over 365 times—more than for each day of the year. If God told us something that many times, it behooves us to pay attention!

He's in control.

Another reason we should “fear not” should be obvious. We live in a day of “fake news,” clickbait headlines, and politically driven decisions that the media is more than happy to present as the only option to stave off the impending doomsday. Things are not always as they appear, and there’s a great deal of interpretation that goes into the science of climate change (hence why models are, more often than not, simply wrong). So, we should always exercise caution when the media begs us to panic and feel hopeless.

3. God has promised that the seasons will continue. After the flood, God made a promise to Noah and his descendants (which includes all of us as well!). We read, "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease" (Genesis 8:22).

God has promised that we will continue to have seasons and that we will continue to be able to grow food. Will climate change? Absolutely. It has in the past, and it will change in the future. But God says the seasons will continue.

Believe God. Or believe Al Gore and his cohorts? That's an easy call.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Not Afraid. Be Prayerful. Be Faithful.