In March, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin announced sweeping deregulation efforts by saying, “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.”
Among the 31 “historic” actions that the EPA began at the time was the “reconsideration” of what’s known as the endangerment finding — the 2009 declaration made by the Obama EPA that greenhouse gases present a risk to human health and can thereby be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The finding is, in many ways, the heart of federal climate efforts: It’s the foundation for all federal regulations that limit carbon emissions. Now, the Trump EPA appears to be on the verge of overturning it, as The New York Times and other news outlets have reported.
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Having no basis for regulating carbon emissions would have devastating consequences not just for every American but for the entire world, as the United States remains the largest emitter of carbon globally. But as is so often the case when it comes to climate change and other environmental issues, Black people will likely face the worst and most immediate consequences if greenhouse gas emissions are no longer regulated — because the already dirtier air that Black America breathes will get that much worse.
The Plan: Roll Back Tailpipe Emissions Standards
There’s no need to guess as what the knock-on effects of overturning the finding might be, because the EPA’s draft plan, as the Times has reported, makes the next steps very clear: with the endangerment finding gone, the Trump EPA plans to rollback all tailpipe emissions from every class of vehicle, from passenger cars to semi trucks.
“The E.P.A. intends to argue that imposing climate regulations on automakers poses the real harm to human health because it would lead to higher prices and reduced consumer choice, according to the two people familiar with the administration’s plan,” according to the Times.
The stricter tailpipe emission standards announced by the Biden Administration last year are a prime example of how limiting greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to address the climate crisis has an immediate effect on local air quality, as well. The rule introduced progressive reductions of both carbon and nitrogen oxides emissions from all vehicle classes, which would significantly increase the number of electric vehicles on American roads, as well as significantly reduce emissions from new vehicles that continue to run on fossil fuels.
Black Communities Already Breathe Dirtier Air
Nitrogen oxides contribute to smog, which presents a host of public health issues that are felt most strongly in communities that are disproportionately exposed – which tend to be Black and Brown neighborhoods.
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions alone also reduces other toxic emissions from vehicles, like fine particulate matter pollution, which exacerbates asthma and other respiratory diseases, which are also disproportionately prevalent in Black communities.
Cleaner Cars, Healthier Neighborhoods
The Biden EPA made the tailpipe standards technology-neutral, leaving it up to auto companies to decide how to reduce emissions — but the government estimated that by 2032 the new standards would lead to a majority of new passenger cars and light trucks being all-electric or hybrid models. Even if the goal of the standards was solely to reduce carbon emissions and not nitrogen oxides too, all those new zero- to low-emission vehicles would have the immediate effect of making the air cleaner, particularly for Black communities.
The Impact on Black America
Conversely, doing away with tailpipe standards will increase carbon emissions, nitrogen oxides emissions, and a host of other toxic emissions associated with burning fossil fuels — and that will have an outsized immediate and long-term effect on Black communities, both in terms of reduced air quality and the worsening effects of climate change, including extreme weather events.
Dorien Blythers, the former Chief of Staff for Operations at the Biden EPA, put it succinctly in an interview with TheGrio: “Let’s call it what it is: a slow suffocation of Black communities already choking on toxic air, blistering heat, and environmental neglect.”