Writing in Breitbart News — the conservative website formerly run by Mr. Trump’s senior strategist, Stephen K. Bannon — James Delingpole, a writer who is close to Mr. Bannon, said
that if Mr. Pruitt refused to undo the endangerment finding, “it will represent a major setback for President Trump’s war with the Climate Industrial Complex.”
“If Scott Pruitt is not up to that task, then maybe it’s about time he did the decent thing and handed over the reins to someone who is,” he added.
Last month, as Mr. Trump prepared to release an executive order directing Mr. Pruitt to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, along with nearly every other major element of Mr.
Obama’s climate change legacy, Mr. Pruitt argued against including a repeal of the endangerment finding in the order, according to people familiar with the matter.
Legal experts say they can see why opponents of climate change policy want to go after the endangerment finding
— as long as it remains in place, any efforts to undo climate regulations can always be reversed.
Thus, climate policy experts on both sides of the debate say, even if Mr. Pruitt succeeds in the legally challenging process of withdrawing
the Clean Power Plan, the endangerment finding will still put him under the legal obligation to put together a replacement regulation.
They want him to uproot the whole thing.”
But, Mr. Lazarus added, “as a matter of legal strategy, it makes little sense, because the endangerment finding is very strong.”
The original recommendation to make an endangerment finding on carbon dioxide emissions
was made by Stephen L. Johnson, a career scientist who led the E. P.A.