Former EPA Employees Join Environmental Group to Oppose Regulatory Changes

Former employees of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have linked up with an environmental organization aiming to prevent the rollback of what they term the “holy grail of climate change religion.”

Last July, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin revealed a proposal to repeal the endangerment findings established during the Obama administration. These findings have been crucial in justifying over $1 trillion in regulations, including the Biden-Harris administration’s electric vehicle mandate. A repeal would do away with numerous greenhouse gas emissions regulations related to vehicles, potentially offering consumers in the U.S. greater choices.

The endangerment findings gave the EPA a legal foundation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, framing them as a risk to public health and welfare.

Zeldin stated during a discussion on the Breitbart Fight Club Roundtable that the Extinction Endangerment study hasn’t definitively concluded that carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles lead to an “extinction crisis.” He referred to this finding as “the holy grail of climate change religion.”

In a written statement from July, he mentioned:

This proposal from the Trump EPA aims to resolve 16 years of uncertainty for both automakers and American consumers. Feedback from various stakeholders indicates that the Obama-Biden EPA misinterpreted the law, disregarded precedent, and manipulated science to achieve their goals, imposing significant hidden costs on American families every year. There are clear concerns that the EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions standards, rather than carbon dioxide itself—which has yet to be independently evaluated—constitute a genuine threat to American lives. Should this proposal advance, it would dismantle the hazardous finding and its associated regulations, wiping away over $1 trillion in hidden costs for American businesses and families.

In March, several environmental organizations, including the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), initiated legal action against the EPA. They contend it’s unlawful for the EPA to eliminate these so-called “climate protections.” Furthermore, there’s been a push to extend the deadlines for filing lawsuits, which some suspect is a strategy to prolong or ultimately abolish the endangered status designation.

Steve Milloy, who was part of Donald Trump’s EPA transitional team and is the editor of Junk Science magazine, remarked that such tactics might delay the implementation of the rule and could allow a future Democratic Congress or president to block the repeal.

Milloy shared with Breitbart News that there’s hope a new administration—and specifically a Democratic one—could “slow things down” enough to effectively override or swiftly repeal the repeal.

The NRDC and EDF, the two groups working to extend the deadline for legal actions regarding the endangerment findings, include former EPA General Counsel staff members. Ryland Shenzi Li and Abhirami Vijayan both served as Assistant General Counsel in the National Ambient Air Quality Standards Group at the EPA for three years.

Milloy noted that the movement of personnel from the EPA to progressive environmental organizations forms part of a “revolving door” for left-wing activists.

“You know Gina McCarthy, who led the EPA under Obama? She ended up at NRDC after his term. It’s quite a familiar route—this revolving door situation. They essentially continue the same work. When they were at the EPA, they pushed a stringent green agenda, and now they’re advocating for it. So, what’s actually changed?”