2026-04-14T08:00:50-04:00 / 福克斯新闻频道
一家政府监督机构指责奥巴马政府的环境保护署（EPA）预先确定了多项监管措施的法律依据
作者：利奥·布里塞尼奥，福克斯新闻
发布时间：2026年4月14日美国东部时间上午8:00 | 更新时间：2026年4月14日美国东部时间上午9:04
一家政府监督机构指责奥巴马政府的环境保护署（EPA）预先确定了其气候框架的法律依据。
在向第九巡回上诉法院提交的法庭之友意见书中，无党派非营利组织政府问责与监督中心（GAO）和另一家政府问责监督机构“保护公众信任”（PPT）曝光了2009年EPA内部的通信记录。
GAO认为，这些通信显示，重视气候问题的官员将奥巴马的《有害认定》视为既定事实，并随后将其作为车辆排放标准、电厂监管和许可限制的基础。GAO特别提到了时任EPA气候政策顾问丽莎·辛泽林的相关通信。
在2009年的一封邮件中，她声称恰当的认定将产生监管的法律强制力。
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2025年11月1日周六，前总统巴拉克·奥巴马在一场竞选活动中。（亚当·格雷/彭博社 via 盖蒂图片社）
“我们预计能在未来100天内发布一份关于温室气体的拟议有害认定，”辛泽林在2月8日写道。“在同一文件中，我们预计将认定某些主要类别的温室气体——尤其是机动车——会造成或加剧危害公众健康和福祉的空气污染。”
“一项有害认定……将触发《清洁空气法》规定的监管义务，”辛泽林补充道。
她的邮件发送时间仅在巴拉克·奥巴马总统就职两周后。
“保护公众信任”主任迈克尔·钱伯兰表示，这些通信似乎预示了预先确定的结果。
“那段时期的记录只是证实了许多人此前的猜测。奥巴马政府的《有害认定》从一开始就存在缺陷。很明显，新任EPA官员上任时就决心推行这种大规模的官僚越权行为，”钱伯兰说道。
这些被曝光的通信正值特朗普政府采取措施废除奥巴马时代的能源监管之际。
今年2月，EPA Administrator李·泽尔丁宣布该机构将撤销2009年的《有害认定》。
吉姆·乔丹被敦促传唤被指控“操纵司法”的气候组织
2025年3月13日，美国环境保护署署长李·泽尔丁在白宫椭圆形办公室与美国总统唐纳德·特朗普和北约秘书长马克·吕特举行会晤。（安德鲁·哈尼克/盖蒂图片社）
“这一认定16年来一直是限制消费者选择、给美国人带来数万亿美元隐性成本的根源，”泽尔丁在2月份的一份新闻稿中表示。
然而，特朗普政府的这一举措遭到了包括美国公共卫生协会、美国肺脏协会和环境法律与政策中心在内的多个组织的法律挑战。
他们辩称，特朗普政府武断地试图中止科学认定。目前此案正由第九巡回上诉法院审理。
尽管围绕特朗普政府的举措仍存在争议，但GAO认为，《有害认定》本身的起源就足以决定此案。
在其法庭之友意见书中，GAO继续强调其认为该程序不符合《行政程序法》（APA）规定的审议要求。
GAO还提到了辛泽林发给奥巴马总统的另一封备忘录。
“我们有一项政治上棘手但在科学和法律上明确的决定准备就绪：认定温室气体危害公众健康和福祉，且移动污染源会促成这种危险的污染，”辛泽林在2009年3月写道。
在发给白宫的另一封备忘录中，EPA署长丽莎·杰克逊出于政治原因敦促总统发布《有害认定》。
“如果地球日当天仍未发布这项认定，国内外的批评将立刻涌现并持续升级。终有一日，本届政府会做出这项认定——恕我大胆直言，这几乎是板上钉钉的事——届时这项决定将被描述为更多出于批评压力而非领导力的结果，”杰克逊写道。
EPA废除拜登政府的煤炭限制令，倡导者称此举将恢复美国能源主导地位
2024年3月18日，前总统巴拉克·奥巴马在离开伦敦市中心的唐宁街10号时做出反应。（阿德里安·丹尼斯/法新社）
GAO的意见书对这种措辞提出了批评。
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“没有任何证据表明，在任何时候，是否发布《有害认定》曾是一个悬而未决的问题，”GAO写道。
辛泽林和杰克逊均未回应福克斯新闻数字频道的置评请求。
利奥·布里塞尼奥是福克斯新闻数字频道国会团队的政治记者，此前曾任职于《世界杂志》。
Unearthed emails expose how Obama-era EPA plotted ‘massive’ energy regulations from day one: watchdog
2026-04-14T08:00:50-04:00 / Fox News
A government watchdog is accusing Obama’s EPA of pre-determining the legal basis for several regulations
By Leo Briceno, Fox News
Published April 14, 2026 8:00am EDT | Updated April 14, 2026 9:04am EDT
A government watchdog is accusing the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of pre-determining the legal basis for its climate framework.
In an amicus filing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Government Accountability and Oversight (GAO), a nonpartisan nonprofit, and Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), another government accountability watchdog, unearthed communications from inside the EPA in 2009.
Those communications, the GAO argued, show that climate-minded officials treated Obama’s Endangerment Finding as a foregone conclusion and later used it as the foundation for vehicle emission standards, power plant regulations and permitting restrictions. In particular, GAO pointed to communications from Lisa Heinzerling, who served as the climate policy counsel at the EPA at the time.
In a 2009 email, she claimed the right findings would create a legal mandate for regulation.
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Former President Barack Obama during a campaign event on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025.(Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We expect to be able to issue a proposed finding of endangerment for greenhouse gases within the next 100 days,” Heinzerling wrote on Feb. 8. “Within the same document, we expect to find that certain major categories of greenhouse gases — in particular motor vehicles — cause or contribute to air pollution which endangers public health and welfare.”
“An endangerment finding … will trigger regulatory obligations under the Clean Air Act,” Heinzerling added.
Her email was sent just two weeks after President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Michael Chamberlain, the director of Protect the Public’s Trust, said the communications appear to telegraph a pre-determined outcome.
“The records from that time period merely confirm what many had suspected. The Obama administration’s Endangerment Finding was flawed from the start. It is clear that the new EPA appointees entered office determined to enact this massive bureaucratic overreach,” Chamberlain said.
The unearthed communications come as the Trump administration has made moves to end Obama-era energy regulations.
In February, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency would be rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding.
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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin attends a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House on March 13, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“[It] has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans,” Zeldin said in a February press release.
However, the Trump administration’s effort ran into legal challenges from a handful of organizations, including the American Public Health Association, the American Lung Association and the Environmental Law & Policy Center.
They argued that Trump is arbitrarily trying to suspend scientific findings. The matter is currently before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Despite the ongoing debate over the Trump administration’s efforts, the GAO believes the origins of the Endangerment Finding itself should be enough to decide the matter.
In its amicus brief, GAO continued to highlight what it saw as a process inconsistent with deliberative requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
GAO highlighted another memo from Heinzerling — this time to President Obama.
“We have a political fraught but scientifically and legally straightforward decision ready to go: that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare and that mobile sources contribute to the pollution that is dangerous,” Heinzerling wrote in March 2009.
In a separate memo to the White House, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson urged the president to issue the Endangerment Finding for political reasons.
“If Earth Day passed without a finding, the domestic and foreign criticism would begin immediately and mount steadily. When, eventually, your administration makes the finding — something that, I will be so bold to say, is a near-certainty — it would be described as more the result of criticism than of leadership,” Jackson wrote.
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Former President Barack Obama reacts as he leaves 10 Downing Street in central London, on March 18, 2024.(Adrian Dennis/AFP)
The GAO’s filing blasted the phrasing.
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“There is no evidence that at any time it was an open question whether the Endangerment Finding would be issued,” the GAO wrote.
Neither Heinzerling nor Jackson responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.
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