CNBC host Joe Kernen was left puzzled by an answer from Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary.
While interviewing Makary on “Squawk Box” early Wednesday, Kernen pointed to a new proposal from Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin, who announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration will move to revoke a landmark finding that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to human health.
The EPA is looking to rescind a 2009 declaration, known as the endangerment finding, which calls for the regulation of six greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Zeldin described the move, if finalized, as “the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States.”
Kernen asked Makary whether it will be a “danger to public health” if the EPA moves forward with its decision about the planet-warming pollution from fossil fuels.
“You know, to be honest, I don’t know enough about that issue,” Makary responded.
Kernen immediately shot back with a chuckle: “You’re in charge of our public health! Can you look into it for us?”
Makary said that a potential reversal is “really an EPA issue,” but added that there are topics that may need “better research.”
“We have never talked about environmental exposures that may say cause cancer. We only talk about the chemo to treat it,” Makary said.
Kernen acknowledged that there are “horrible pollutants” in the air, but “not all ‘pollutants’ are created equal.”
If successfully put forward, the EPA’s move would remove the legal basis of all U.S. regulations related to greenhouse gas from power plants, cars, trucks, and the oil and gas industries, taking away the federal government’s main ability to fight climate change.
Zeldin had previously said in March that the agency would reconsider the long-standing declaration as part of a set of proposals that the Trump administration considers restrictive to fossil fuel.
In a press release, the EPA said that the proposal would save more than $54 billion in costs annually through the repeal of all greenhouse gas standards, according to conservative economic forecasts. The agency claimed that the finding has been “used to justify over $1 trillion in regulations,” including the electric vehicle mandate passed under the previous presidency.
“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” Zeldin said in the press release. “In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year.”
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