By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to reverse a key scientific determination that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health, removing the legal foundation that underpins all major climate regulations, two sources familiar with the action told Reuters.
The proposal to reverse the “endangerment finding” guts one of the most consequential federal standards that had enabled the United States to tackle climate change by regulating vehicles, industrial and energy-producing facilities that emit heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
A reversal would allow the EPA to easily undo major regulations that tackled greenhouse gas emissions that were based on the finding, the sources said.
An EPA spokesperson said that the agency sent its proposal for reconsidering the endangerment finding to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review on June 30 and is being reviewed by other federal agencies.
“The proposal will be published for public notice and comment once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the Administrator,” an EPA spokesperson said in an email.
The Washington Post first reported on the decision.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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