CURTIS SCHUBE: EPA Ending Endangerment Finding Restores Federal Power Where It Belongs

(Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)

Have you ever wondered why cars are getting so expensive? Regulation. What about that ridiculous feature that turns your car off every time you come to a stop sign? Regulation. Or why it seems like invisible forces are pushing you toward an electric car? Again, regulation. Specifically, the Endangerment Finding, promulgated under the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If you drive a car, the EPA has likely made your buying experience more expensive and your driving experience less enjoyable.

These things could go away if the EPA’s recent action to rescind the Endangerment Finding withstands the lawsuits that were filed (a tactic happening all too often when President Donald Trump does something). Critics portray the move as an abandonment of environmental responsibility. But at its core, the rescission is not a scientific judgment. Rather, it is a legal judgment about who decides how the nation reacts to scientific issues such as climate change. Here, the changes were sweeping, so the EPA rightly corrected itself.

The 2009 Endangerment Finding transformed a section of the Clean Air Act so the EPA could authorize itself to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles based on their supposed contribution to global climate change. The Obama EPA pointed to a provision of the Clean Air Act written in 1967, which gave the EPA authority........

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