Major OMB Changes To EPA Vehicle GHG Finding Highlight Prior Criticisms

摘要

EPA's recent determination that it must weaken Obama-era light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas standards underwent extensive rewrites during interagency review, with a newly released red-line version of the document indicating it arrived at the White House lacking language to shield the document from litigation and with minimal apparent input from career staff. The red-line version of the determination was posted to EPA's regulatory docket May 8, highlighting specific changes made to the document after it arrived at the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) for review. The document is available on lnsideEPA.com. (Doc. ID: 211730) While it is the final notice that has legal significance - and not the prior draft that was revised at OMB - the revisions nonetheless appear to lend weight to prior criticism that the agency is rushing out deregulatory policies without necessarily having solidified analysis to justify those policies over the long term. "Usually these documents are lightly edited," says one observer, adding that the scope of changes appear unusual. EPA did not respond to a request for comment.