The United States has withdrawn a landmark scientific determination that has served for years as the legal foundation for regulating greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change.
In a major policy shift announced Thursday, President Donald Trump’s administration finalised a rule through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rescinding the 2009 “endangerment finding.” The decision marks one of the most sweeping environmental rollbacks since the start of Trump’s second term.
Originally established during the presidency of Barack Obama, the endangerment finding concluded that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. The determination underpinned nearly all federal climate regulations under the Clean Air Act, covering emissions from motor vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources.
President Trump has repeatedly dismissed climate change as a “hoax” and a “con job.” He described the endangerment finding as “one of the greatest scams in history”, claiming it “had no basis in fact” or law.
“On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world,” Trump said at a White House ceremony announcing the move.
He characterised the repeal as “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far”.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who joined Trump at the event, referred to the endangerment finding as “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach”.
By rescinding the finding, the administration effectively eliminates federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks. Experts warn that it could also dismantle climate-related rules governing power plants and oil and gas facilities.
However, the rule change is expected to face significant legal challenges. Environmental law professor Ann Carlson told The Associated Press that overturning the finding will “raise more havoc” than other environmental rollbacks under Trump.
Environmental advocacy groups described the move as the most significant attack on federal climate authority in U.S. history, arguing that scientific evidence supporting the endangerment finding has strengthened over the past 17 years.
Alongside the repeal, the EPA announced it would end tax credits for automakers that install automatic start-stop ignition systems, which are designed to reduce emissions. Zeldin defended the move, saying “everyone hates” the technology.
Zeldin, a former Republican congressman appointed by Trump to head the EPA, criticised previous Democratic administrations, arguing they prioritised climate policy at the expense of economic stability. He said the endangerment finding “led to trillions of dollars in regulations that strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including the American auto industry”.
“The Obama and Biden administrations used it to steamroll into existence a left-wing wish list of costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates and other requirements that assaulted consumer choice and affordability,” he added.
The endangerment finding had provided the legal basis for regulations aimed at mitigating climate-related risks, including deadly floods, extreme heatwaves and wildfires.
Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who later served as White House climate adviser under President Joe Biden, criticised the decision as reckless.
“This EPA would rather spend its time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,” she said.
McCarthy argued that the EPA has a clear scientific and legal responsibility to regulate greenhouse gases, noting that the health and environmental risks associated with climate change have “become impossible to ignore”.
The action follows an executive order from Trump directing the EPA to review “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding.
Conservative lawmakers and business groups have long pushed to roll back what they view as economically burdensome climate regulations. Democratic Senator Ed Markey described preserving the finding as a “no-brainer”.
“Trump and Zeldin are putting our lives and our future at risk,” he said in a video statement.
“They have rolled back protection after protection in a race to the bottom. Instead of ‘Let them eat cake,’ Zeldin is saying, ‘Let them breathe soot.’”
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
