Trump EPA seeks to repeal finding that carbon dioxide emissions threaten public health

The Trump administration is seeking to repeal a landmark finding that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to public health, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.

"This has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion," EPA administrator Lee Zeldin told the conservative "Ruthless Podcast." "Repealing it will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America," Zeldin said

The EPA under the Obama administration issued an endangerment finding in 2009 that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases "threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations."

The finding is the basis for Clean Air Act regulations aimed at combating climate change by limiting vehicle and power plant emissions.

The EPA will seek to repeal all greenhouse gas emissions standards on light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that followed the endangerment finding, Zeldin said later Tuesday at a car dealership in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The EPA action is part of President Donald Trump's broader effort to expand oil, natural gas and coal production while limiting the expansion of renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Trump abandoned U.S. commitments to fight climate change on his first day in office, issuing an order to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.