Tesla urges EPA not to smash foundation for climate rules

Tesla is telling the EPA it shouldn't rescind the legal underpinning for carbon emissions rules and scuttle tailpipe CO2 standards.

Why it matters: The newly available comments show how the Trump administration's pullback of climate policies threatens the electric vehicle maker.

• The company's sharp divide with the administration also follows the collapse of CEO Elon Musk and President Trump's alliance.

Driving the news: Tesla is among the many respondents to the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to repeal the 2009 "endangerment finding" that greenhouse gases from vehicles threaten human health and welfare.

• The formal finding provides the legal basis for regulating CO2 emissions from cars and trucks, and — by extension — some other big sources.
• Tesla's comments also oppose EPA's related plan to do away with any emissions rules for cars and trucks.

Threat level: "The Endangerment Finding — and the vehicle emissions standards which flow from it — have provided a stable regulatory platform for Tesla's extensive investments in product development and production," Tesla states.

• The 2009 finding is legal and "based on a robust factual and scientific record," Tesla's Monday comments now available in EPA's regulatory docket state.

The other side: EPA in August issued the proposal that Administrator Lee Zeldin called "basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion."

• The plan makes a suite of legal and scientific arguments on the finding and tailpipe rules (many that are sharply contested), alleging that EPA "unreasonably analyzed the scientific record" in the 2009 decision.

• They include claims that Supreme Court decisions in 2022 and 2024, which limited what executive agencies can do without explicit congressional blessing, warrant reconsideration of the policies.

The bottom line: "While Tesla believes that the current regulation establishing the standards is overly complex and could be streamlined to make it less burdensome, we do, nonetheless, recognize EPA's authority and obligation to establish greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles," Tesla's comments state.

Cover photo:  Tesla logo in Pleasanton,, Calif. Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images