Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it is eliminating the agency’s 2009 endangerment finding. The scientific standard found key greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, are a threat to public health.
The emissions warm the planet by trapping heat in the atmosphere, leading to higher moisture levels and more extreme weather.
The endangerment finding was used to set regulations under the Clean Air Act to combat climate change, including limiting emissions from cars and trucks. Biden-era methane reduction rules on the oil and gas industry also used the finding as a basis.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the action would save taxpayers $1.3 trillion by cutting regulations and compliance requirements.
“I am proud to deliver the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history on behalf of American taxpayers and consumers,” he wrote in the announcement.
Air quality in Oklahoma is monitored by the state Department of Environmental Quality, which keeps a statewide emissions inventory. The agency issues permits to companies running incinerators, oil and gas facilities and other operations.
A spokesperson for DEQ said the agency is evaluating whether the EPA’s endangerment finding change will affect any of its federally delegated programs.
The repeal could also impact Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry.
Brook A. Simmons, president of the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, said in a news release the repeal marks the EPA’s return to “common-sense policies.”
“Sound public policy must balance environmental stewardship with economic opportunity while encouraging energy abundance,” he said. “Removing a regulatory foundation that has been weaponized to increase costs for consumers, harm the oil and natural gas industry and undermine U.S. energy security is an important step toward regulatory certainty and competitive energy markets.”
Environmental advocacy groups including Sierra Club Oklahoma have spoken out against the rescission. Director Kara-Joy McKee said the decision will lead to increased emissions, resulting in more extreme weather conditions, including wildfires. But she expects investments in renewable energy will persist.
“We will continue to see more solar, more wind, more geothermal and battery storage, so progress will continue to be made,” she said. “But the communities that are suffering from air quality issues and from increased climate chaos, which is all of us, will suffer more because of this backwards anti-science decision.”
As of Wednesday, several health and environmental groups have joined a lawsuit challenging the repeal. The American Public Health Association, Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists are among the organizations suing the Trump administration.
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