Gov. Janet Mills Reacts to Trump Administration’s Reversal of Obama-Era Declaration Underpinning Greenhouse Gas Regulation

On Thursday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reversed an Obama-era declaration that has served as the basis for the government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Known as the Endangerment Finding, this 2009 declaration states that the “current and projected concentrations” of greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.”

This stemmed from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases are a category of air pollutant covered by the Clean Air Act, opening the door for the EPA to determine under Section 202(a) if they can reasonably be understood to pose a threat to “public health or welfare.”

[RELATED: EPA Looks to End Clean Air Act Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Output by Reversing Obama-Era Declaration]

President Donald Trump (R) called the move “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far” while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin referred to the endangerment finding as “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach,” according to the Associated Press.

The president went on to say that he was glad to repeal “a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers.”

“[The endangerment finding] had no basis in fact, had none whatsoever, and it had no basis in law,” President Trump said at a White House ceremony Thursday. “On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world.”

Maine’s Gov. Janet Mills (D) responded to the Trump Administration’s reversal Thursday in a statement condemning the move.

“The Trump Administration is abandoning its responsibility to protect the health of our people and the planet from the proven harms of climate pollution,” said Gov. Mills.

“This decision disregards years of scientific research and data, leaving American families to feel the pain with dirtier air, poorer health, rising temperatures, and extreme weather events,” she said. “Maine is already called the ‘tailpipe’ of the nation because of the air pollution that flows from other states into our atmosphere, and this misguided action will only make it worse.”

“Maine is also grappling with increasingly frequent and severe storms that will only worsen from unchecked climate pollution, which threatens the health of Maine people, our environment, and our economy,” said Mills.

“Unlike the federal government,” she concluded, “my Administration will acknowledge good science and never back down from taking action to combat climate pollution to protect our people, our environment, and the future of our children.”

Click Here to Read Gov. Mills’ Full Statement