Foley Hoag Energy & Climate Partners Seth Jaffe and Basil Seggos commented on the recent announcement that the Trump Administration would repeal the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, the landmark finding that underpins greenhouse gas regulation.

In Fortune, Seggos called the decision to repeal the Endangerment Finding “reckless and shortsighted…a signal that they intend to shatter the bedrock underneath the entire edifice” of regulation. He noted, however, that litigation and the general shift toward electrification could have a “blunting effect on the outcome.”

In Law360, Jaffe speculated that this week’s announcement was part of a larger administration strategy to eventually overturn the Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, a decision which eventually led the drafting of the Endangerment Finding and enabled greenhouse gas regulation. 

"It may be that the administration is looking to really get a permanent solution here," said Jaffe. "But until I see what a Supreme Court decision says, it's not obvious to me that such a Supreme Court decision, even if it affirms repeal of the endangerment finding, would preclude the next administration from resuscitating it."

Read more about the repeal of the Endangerment Finding in our blog, Law and the Environment.