SOURCE:
By Robert Brodsky - July, 2025
The Trump administration's plan to rescind a rule used to enforce limits on greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles will jeopardize health and safety on Long Island while undermining billions of dollars New York has spent electrifying the transportation sector, local environmental advocates and scientific experts say.
On Tuesday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans to revoke a 2009 scientific declaration known as the endangerment finding, which determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health.
The finding was utilized by both the Obama and Biden administrations to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other major sources of pollution.
'Abandonment of science'
While Zeldin, a former Long Island Republican congressman who previously supported measures to fight climate change, boasted that the proposal would be the "largest deregulatory action in the history of America," environmental advocates contend the plan will have disastrous consequences.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
▪ The Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday announced that it would move to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding which serves as the linchpin for a host of climate change regulations
▪ The policy shift could have significant consequences for the transportation sector, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and specifically to the electric vehicle industry
▪ Environmental experts contend the policy shift could have disastrous effects for public health on Long Island and will weaken protections against future storms and severe weather events
"This decision is not only a complete abandonment of science, but it will go down as the most dangerous and costly environmental rollback in the history of our nation," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "Local governments across Long Island are already planning and managing for sea-level rise, more intense coastal storms, local flooding, heat waves and more. And yet the federal government is telling us that our changing climate isn’t a crisis they want to tackle."
Jane Fasullo, chair of the Sierra Club Long Island chapter, said homeowners already pay skyrocketing insurance costs because of the growing risk of flood damage linked to climate change.
"If you don't fix your roof when it's leaking, the whole frame of your house can rot," Fasullo said. "And that's what's happening here."
Jase Bernhardt, an associate professor of geology, environment and sustainability at Hofstra University, agrees that the consequences from rescinding the endangerment finding will be damaging but suggests they are likely to be incremental and slower for the public to discern.
"It's going to be more gradual," said Bernhardt, who serves as Hofstra's director of sustainability and meteorology programs. "There's not going to be that singular event where you can say 'this definitely had an immediate effect right here.' It's a long term change."
Electric vehicles in the crosshairs
The greatest impact from the regulatory shift, experts said, could be to the transportation sector — the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions — and specifically to the electric vehicle industry, which represents more than 1 in 10 cars sold nationwide.
The EPA under previous Democratic administrations utilized the endangerment finding to regulate tailpipe emissions for new cars, while encouraging automakers to produce more electric vehicles.
If finalized — the plan must still go through a lengthy review process, including a public comment period and must survive expected court challenges — Zeldin said the proposal would remove all greenhouse gas standards for light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles and heavy-duty engines, saving taxpayers $54 billion.
"This electric-truck mandate put the trucking industry on a path to economic ruin and would have crippled our supply chain, disrupted deliveries, and raised prices for American
families and businesses," American Trucking Association president and chief executive Chris Spear said in a statement.
Charles Rothenberger, in-house climate and energy attorney for Save the Sound, an environmental nonprofit, said "the slower we're transitioning our fleet to EVs, the longer residents are going to be suffering from poor air quality, exacerbating asthma and other respiratory illnesses. ... These emissions of climate sourcing gasses do have direct and immediate public health and human health consequences."
Rothenberg said the EPA's action also undermines the nearly $3 billion New York has spent in recent years to support range of initiatives to increase access to electric vehicles and chargers while improving air quality and health outcomes.
"These policy shifts, which disregard established scientific consensus, are projected to increase harmful air pollutants and tailpipe emissions," state DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said in a statement. "The consequences could be significant, leading to serious public health implications, including heightened risks for asthma, cardiovascular disease, and other respiratory ailments. Such actions undermine the critical work being done to safeguard the health, environment, and well-being of all citizens."
While a wealth of scientific data shows that greenhouse emissions are contributing to climate change, Zeldin said Tuesday that the regulations themselves are the "real threat to Americans’ livelihoods" because they increased the price of new vehicles and provide fewer choices to consumers.
Jason Albritton, director of the Manhattan-based Nature Conservancy's North America Climate Mitigation Program, disagrees and argues the EPA is ignoring decades of scientific evidence while increasing uncertainty for individuals and businesses across the country.
"Reversing the endangerment finding would not only undermine our ability to combat climate change," he said, "but would weaken protections for communities against growing threats — like extreme heat, intense storms, prolonged droughts, wildfires, and the increasing risks to safe drinking and recreational water — that we’re already seeing across Long Island."
Newsday's Aidan Johnson contributed to this story.
