Gov. Tina Kotek said Tuesday that Oregon will continue its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, despite the Trump administration’s announcement it’s rolling back environmental regulation of the fossil fuel industry.
The Environmental Protection Agency is revoking a scientific finding that has been used to set stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards and fight climate change under the Clean Air Act. The Endangerment Finding focused on six greenhouse gas emissions found in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide and methane — powerful carbon emissions, that threaten public health and welfare.
“Oregonians value public health decisions based on science, not politics,” Kotek said in a statement. “We need our federal government to stand with us by reducing air pollution that reaches across state boundaries. Oregon has climate pollution reduction goals and programs grounded in science, and we will continue on our path forward despite this backward step by the Trump Administration.”
She said the Endangerment Finding, which came out 16 years ago, paved the way for federal action to reduce carbon pollution, especially from tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks.
And the governor said the continued changes by Trump administration actions that undermine regulation of harmful pollutants, including continued cuts to federal programs like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are alarming.
Trump’s decision to revoke the EPA’s federal climate response follows an executive order, Unleashing American Energy, which was signed on the first day of his administration. That executive order aims to increase the country’s production of and dependence on fossil fuels, like oil and natural gas, while challenging renewable energy production and halting federal funding aimed at climate action.
According to the EPA, if Tuesday’s action is finalized the agency would “repeal all resulting greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines, thereby reinstating consumer choice and giving Americans the ability to purchase a safe and affordable car for their family while decreasing the cost of living on all products that trucks deliver.”
Meredith Connolly, director of policy and strategy at Northwest-based nonprofit Climate Solutions, said the Trump proposal is another devastating blow in the fight against climate change.
“What this does is unilaterally disarm the EPA from being able to regulate and reduce emissions from power plants, from vehicles, from oil and gas drilling,” she said. “They’re doing so by claiming that climate change and climate pollution does not hurt people’s health or welfare and therefore, there’s nothing they have to do about it to protect people. It’s completely upside down.”
Since the start of the new administration, the federal government has been rolling back environmental protections against climate change and targeting renewable energy projects like wind and solar.
Connolly said that not only hurts the environment, but it harms states’ own energy affordability and independence as Oregon and others seek to address a changing climate.
She said now is the time for state agencies like the Oregon Department of Energy and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to step up.
“State agencies like DEQ and our Climate Protection Program and other clean energy regulations are all that’s standing between us and protecting our air and water and climate and complete just carte blanche on dumping pollution into our air and waterways,” she said. “The EPA is literally ending their ability to regulate and protect our air and water and so all we have left are state protections.”
The Trump administration’s EPA proposal will go through a review process which includes public comment.
The Endangerment Finding took effect in 2010 and was used by past presidential administrations to set stricter rules and limits on greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector as well as other industrial sectors.
