WASHINGTON: The US Environmental Protection Agency plans to reverse its scientific determination that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health, removing the legal foundation that underpins all major climate regulations, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

Reversal of the `endangerment finding` would gut one of the most consequential federal standards that had enabled the US to tackle climate change by regulating vehicles, industries, and energy-producing facilities that emit heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Without the finding, the EPA could more easily undo major regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions, the sources said. An EPA spokesperson said the agency sent its proposal for reconsidering the endangerment finding to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review on June 30 and it is being reviewed by other federal agencies.

`The proposal will be published for public notice and comment once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the Administrator, an EPA spokesperson said in an email. The Washington Post first reported on the decision.

One source said the proposal would focus on EPA`s legal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, not the scientific basis for it. Lawyers have said that challenging the scientific basis of the finding would be difficult because the body of evidence that humans are causing climate change is unequivocal.

`It would be a shocking dereliction of a clear statutory duty to protect the public and an indefensible denial of overwhelming science. Also a national embarrassment,` said Sean Donahue, a lawyer with Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog, who has represented environmental groups in cases before the Supreme Court. The US is the largest historical greenhouse gas emitter and currently the No. 2 emitter after China.-Reuters