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The so-called “endangerment finding” that claimed greenhouse-gas emissions endanger human health has been repealed by the Trump administration, and federal tailpipe emission standards for cars and trucks have also been eliminated.
Reuters has labelled the move “the most sweeping climate change policy rollback by the administration to date.”
On Thursday, President Trump—who has called climate change a “con job”—said it was the biggest piece of deregulation in American history.
“Under the process just completed by the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], we are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and drove up prices for American consumers,” the President said.
The EPA said the “endangerment finding” was the product of an incorrect interpretation of federal clean-air laws, and that it “took the agency outside the scope of its statutory authority in multiple respects.”
“Referred to by some as the holy grail of federal regulatory overreach, the 2009 Obama EPA endangerment finding is now eliminated,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said.
The endangerment finding was adopted in 2009, after the Supreme Court ruled two years earlier that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions under the 1963 Clean Air Act.
Reuters notes the endangerment finding’s “repeal would remove the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, but may not initially apply to stationary sources such as power plants.”
Under President Biden, the EPA aimed to reduced tailpipe emissions by around 50% by 2032 compared with 2027 projected levels, and for between 35% and 56% of all new vehicles sold between 2030 and 2032 to be electric.
The EPA predicts the repeal of the endangerment finding will save US taxpayers $1.3 trillion.
Former president Barack Obama reacted to the news with anger. In a post on X, he said the move would leave Americans “less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.”
