EPA proposes cutting greenhouse gas rules

For years the Environmental Protection Agency has pushed carmakers to reduce how much vehicles contribute to climate change.

Today the EPA laid out plans to not just weaken those rules, but end them entirely.

In 2009, the agency determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are a form of air pollution that the agency can regulate under the Clean Air Act. That's because those gases contribute to climate change, which harms human health.

That determination, called the "endangerment finding," underpins major regulations — including strict tailpipe standards for carmakers that envisioned at least half the new cars sold in the U.S. being electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030. The transportation sector is the largest source of direct greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

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