INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, on Tuesday called an Obama-era greenhouse gas rule politically motivated and not grounded in science.

Zeldin’s remarks came at an event at a heavy truck dealership on the east side of Indianapolis in which Trump and Braun administration officials celebrated the EPA beginning the process to eliminate a provision known as the endangerment finding. Adopted in 2009, the endangerment finding determined a mix of six greenhouse gases from tailpipe emissions threaten public health and contribute to climate change. The finding has underpinned emissions regulations for the past 16 years.

Zeldin said the finding vastly exceeded the EPA’s regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act. He accused his predecessors of making assumptions that weren’t true and relying on predictions that did not pan out.

“Do you really think that the EPA should be coming up with the many, many mental leaps that went into this endangerment finding that took a section of the Clean Air Act, (Section) 202 and put an extremely creative and unprecedented spin on it?” he said.

Zeldin said repealing the finding would eliminate a host of mandates, including those relating to electric vehicles as well as carbon credits given to auto companies for including start-stop technology in their cars. He said the move would bring down car prices associated with meeting those requirements and would help bring auto industry jobs back to America.

The EPA’s own statistics show the transportation sector is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 28% of such emissions in 2022. Electricity generation and industry were close behind at 25% and 23%, respectively. Fifty-seven percent of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions come from light-duty vehicles such as passenger cars. According to the EPA, the average passenger car emits 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide in one year.

The American Lung Association in April ranked the Indianapolis metropolitan area 11th worst out of 208 metro areas for air quality. Zeldin said that data would not have affected the endangerment finding and existing regulations under the Clean Air Act would not be affected. Sam Carpenter, the executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Coalition, said he doesn’t believe that argument. He said the fact that the endangerment finding guided regulations on everything from auto emissions to power plants since 2009 means there is no way repealing it will not affect air and water quality. He said eliminating greenhouse gas regulations will end up costing consumers more in the long run.

“We need to stop pretending that climate change is not a problem,” he said. “People are seeing that their electricity costs are skyrocketing. That is because of extreme heat and it’s because of the need for additional energy and infrastructure that’s needed for that. Those energy prices are going to continue to go up.”

Carpenter said the combined cost of climate change and the loss of billions of dollars’ worth of investments in clean energy jobs means the economic cost of the rule change would outweigh any benefits.

Zeldin said the rule will be finalized after a 45-day public comment period. Carpenter said lawsuits to keep the finding in place are likely.

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