WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation released the following statements today applauding the Trump administration’s proposal to rescind a greenhouse gas finding that is the basis of myriad emissions standards, including those regulating vehicles under the Clean Air Act. The proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came at the same time as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a review of greenhouse gas emissions citing Heritage research.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former deputy assistant secretary for research and technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation and director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment, stated:
“The implications are profound. If adopted, the proposal would ensure consumer choice of vehicles and help with affordability, performance, and safety. For years, transportation has been the linchpin of climate regulation. If the justification for regulating greenhouse gases from vehicles collapses, the rationale for regulating other sectors, such as power plants, is even weaker.”
The decision by the Trump administration will save Americans billions of dollars, reduce deaths and injuries on the road, and increase economic growth. Heritage research shows that, while climate change is occurring, its effects are vastly overstated and should not constitute the basis for regulating energy in the American economy, including the automotive industry.
Dr. Kevin Dayaratna, Heritage’s chief statistician and director of the Center for Data Analysis, added:
“In the context of the automotive industry, especially, CO2 has a trifling effect on global temperatures. Our analysis at The Heritage Foundation has shown that even if all CO2 emissions from the US automotive industry are averted, there would be less than 0.05 degrees Celsius global temperature impact by the end of the century.
“All the policymakers in the past have pursued policies regarding the regulation of GHGs for automobiles which do nothing besides require the industry to operate within the confines of rules devised by regulators and bureaucrats in Washington D.C., that will have essentially no impact on the climate.”
Dayaratna’s book, Cooling the Climate Hysteria, is an anthology of Heritage papers delving into climate change realism by distinguished researchers worldwide, setting the record straight on many of the exaggerations regarding climate change.
The book casts significant doubt on the reliability of climate models, the attribution of extreme weather and health effects to CO₂, and the limited consideration in the past given to potential benefits of moderate warming and elevated carbon dioxide levels.
It is time for policymakers to throw out cherry-picked research and utilize a levelheaded assessment of the climate and its various manifestations to reshape our regulatory landscape.
