EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin discusses reversing the 2009 greenhouse gas Endangerment Finding, and thus, all subsequent federal emission standards based on it, with FNC’s Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

LEE ZELDIN, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: President Trump on day one signed an executive order telling me to do all the research, the vetting, provide a recommendation in the first 30 days of his administration on what to do with the 2009 Endangerment Finding. We provided that recommendation and pressed forward at Trump speed, announcing with President Trump in the Roosevelt Room what is the largest act of deregulation in American history, $ 1.3 trillion of savings. That means $ 2,400 per new vehicle, less electric vehicle infrastructure that’s needed. It adds up in a very big way for the American economy. What we saw from the Obama and Biden administrations, taking the Endangerment Finding for mobile sources, then stationary sources, oil and gas, airplanes, they ended up doing what amounted to trillions of dollars of regulation. We’re just talking here about the light, medium and heavy-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emissions that we repealed. It’s a big savings. And it’s about following the best reading of the law. And the Clean Air Act simply doesn’t state that EPA should be doing trillions of dollars of regulation to combat global climate change. That’s not even in Section 202 of the Clean Air Act. So we’re respecting Supreme Court precedent. We’re following the law and we’re delivering on that Trump mandate that the American public proudly voted for. MARIA BARTIROMO: What can you do to push or encourage the Congress to codify this into law? Because even in the most recent earnings season, you saw the automakers, for example, having to take charges, switch gears because the law is now changing with these executive orders. And in terms of having long-term confidence in what the law is, we need to see some of this codified. Do you expect that to happen any time soon? ZELDIN: Well, here’s the great — the greatest thing about this particular action, in the best reading of Section 202 of the Clean Air Act and following the Supreme Court case in Loper Bright, it doesn’t allow us to combat global climate change. All the many mental leaps that the Obama administration made in 2009 to reach this Endangerment Finding isn’t even allowed in the current version of the law. And, by the way, kudos to Congress, because they passed three really important Congressional Review Act bills that got rid of Biden EPA waivers to California to get rid of tailpipe emissions, got rid of their electric vehicle mandate that a bunch of other states had subscribed to. So you look at President Trump’s auto policy in total, when you look at getting rid of the electric vehicle mandates, you look at the repeal of this Endangerment Finding, reset the CAFE standards, the U.S. auto industry is booming. BARTIROMO: Yes. And we should point out a word on affordability, because I know this is going to be among the headlines of President Trump’s address for the State of the Union address on Tuesday night. You say that this rollback of this climate change agenda and these emission standards will mean that the price of a vehicle will also come down, along with all of the other efforts that President Trump has been leading in terms of getting health care costs down and grocery prices down. ZELDIN: Yes, that’s right. So we’re promoting more consumer choice, because this also includes getting rid of the off-cycle credit on that annoying start-stop feature. No more climate participation trophies to manufacturers for putting a feature that makes your car die at red lights and stop signs, so more consumer choice, more affordable new vehicles, and a lower cost of living because the trucks that deliver the goods you purchase are now going down as well.

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