Climate: Trump wants to deregulate the automotive sector

Donald Trump’s government announced on Tuesday to return to a major 2009 decision which was used so far to fight against greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, a reform which should in particular allow vast deregulation for the automotive sector.

“If it is finalized, today’s announcement would be the biggest measure of deregulation in the history of the United States,” said Lee Zeldin, the boss of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arguing that the 2009 decision is the source of significant damage to the American economy.

Supported by the fossil industries, the American president has since returned in January multiplied the measures hostile to the fight against global warming. The United States is the second largest world and most important transmitter in history.

Tuesday’s announcement, which is still due to go through a 45-day public consultation phase, attacks a decision taken during the first term of ex-president Barack Obama. This “endanger finding” of 2009 constitutes the legal basis of many federal regulations aimed at combating global warming. Driven by a judgment of the Supreme Court, the EPA considered it that greenhouse gases were dangerous for public health and that, consequently, it was competent to regulate their emissions under a 1970 law, Clean Air Act.

According to the current EPA boss, the agency had made “intellectual shortcuts” at the time during the development of this decision, which is however based on a large scientific consensus.

This reform should notably allow vast deregulation for the automotive sector by softening the rules on vehicle emissions. The transport sector is the first source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, most of the Americans using the car for their daily trips. If the American transport sector was a country, it would be the fourth largest greenhouse gas transmitter in the world, according to the NGO Natural Resources Defense Council.

Tuesday’s decision should also affect the rules for emissions from gas or coal power plants. About 60% of American electricity is taken from fossil fuels.

This backdrop of the American executive will, in all likelihood, be disputed before the courts, probably to the Supreme Court. Give right to the Trump administration would return to a reversal of case law: it is a decision of the High Court, in 2007, which is originally the “endanger Finding”.

“I hope that (the judges) will recognize that this is science, and not of politics,” added Dan Becker. But the Supreme Court is “very politicized,” he said. Today it is made up of six conservative judges against three progressives.

Since his return to the White House in January, Donald Trump has left the Paris climate agreement and favored the exploitation of gas and petroleum, especially in wild regions of Alaska. This announcement comes in full heat wave on the east coast of the country, and while the planet lived in 2024 the hottest year ever recorded.