Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

A conservative think tank urged U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt again today to reconsider the 2009 endangerment finding, the science that underpins his agency’s climate rules.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s letter to Pruitt is signed by more than 60 scientists and health professionals in support of a petition to reconsider the finding for greenhouse gases.

In April, CEI along with the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council petitioned EPA to take a hard look at the finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare (Greenwire, April 10).

“The Endangerment Finding is the basis for a host of incredibly burdensome and wide-ranging regulations, ranging from auto fuel economy standards to the Clean Power Plan,” wrote CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. “These threaten access to affordable energy, as well as millions of jobs, and countless lives around the world.”

Kenneth Haapala, president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, echoed CEI’s calls in an addendum to the letter, which includes the names of scientists who question the validity of the endangerment finding.

“We the undersigned are individuals who have technical skills and knowledge relevant to climate science and the GHG Endangerment Finding,” Haapala wrote. “We each are convinced that the 2009 GHG Endangerment Finding is fundamentally flawed and that an honest, unbiased reconsideration is in order.”

Among those who signed the letter are economist James Wallace III and climatologist Joseph D’Aleo, who predicted “global cooling” in the 2008 edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. While the pair have consistently criticized EPA’s authority in court battles, the Supreme Court has decided three times that EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

While EPA has said it will repeal the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature climate regulation, agency officials have remained quiet about their plans for the endangerment finding (E&E News PM, Oct. 10).