California climate regulation

What Happens to State Regulation if the Endangerment Findings are Gone?

Answer: State authority wouldn’t suffer from the change and might expand in some ways.

If the Trump EPA successfully repeals the endangerment findings for vehicles and stationary sources, states will be the only resort for climate regulation.  A key question is how the repeals would impact state power to regulate carbon emissions.  The bottom line answers are: (1) the impact on state power regulate tailpipe emissions seems unclear but could be positive, (2) there would be no effect on state power to regulate stationary sources like power plants, and (3) plaintiffs suing oil companies would probably benefit. The detailed analysis is below.

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