Trump repeals landmark EPA climate finding. Here’s what to know.
Trump’s repeal of the endangerment finding eliminates the legal basis for federal regulations that target air pollution from greenhouse gases.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his administration have rescinded an Obama-era scientific finding on climate change that has served for nearly two decades as the legal underpinning for regulations targeting man-made greenhouse gases.
The Feb. 12 repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding” delivers a major blow to American efforts to address a global problem. It means greenhouse gases emitted from tailpipes on vehicles are no longer subject to regulations from the federal government.
Trump hailed the move at a White House event, calling it “the single largest deregulatory action in American history.”
“That’s a big statement – in American history. And I think we can add the words ‘by far,’” the Republican president said, citing White House projections that the decision will reduce deregulatory costs by $1.3 trillion by lowering the average cost of vehicles.
Trump said the repealed finding “had no basis in fact ‒ had none whatsoever ‒ and it had no basis in law.”
Here’s what to know:
What is the endangerment finding?
The finding, signed in 2009 during the Obama administration, stated that current and projected concentrations of six key greenhouses gases in the atmosphere “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” A related EPA finding, signed in tandem, singled out new motor vehicles and engines as contributors to greenhouse gas pollution.
The revocation is a boon for the fossil fuel industry, and it marks the most sweeping step the Trump administration has taken to roll back federal regulations targeting climate change, which Trump regularly mocks as a “hoax” and a “con job.” The president has also withdrawn the United States from global efforts via the United Nations to fight climate change that dated back to the George H.W. Bush administration.
The endangerment finding provides the basis for the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. But with its elimination, the Trump administration is effectively wiping out these regulations.
The EPA “would lack statutory authority to regulate emissions based on global climate change concerns” under the Clean Air Act, the EPA wrote in a proposed rule first submitted in August 2025 to rescind the finding.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, speaking alongside Trump, accused the Obama administration of embarking on “an ideological crusade” by enacting the endangerment finding in 2019. He said it “set off the most costly regulatory power grab our country has ever experienced” and “strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including the auto industry.”
“No longer will automakers be pressured to shift their fleets toward electric vehicles ‒ vehicles that are still sitting unsold on dealer lots all across America,” Zeldin said, arguing the Obama and Biden administrations used the finding to “steamroll a left-wing wish list of costly climate policies.”
What do environmentalists say?
Environmental and public health advocacy groups condemned the rollback of the finding, which cites carbon dioxide and methane among the greenhouse gases that are threats to public health.
Some organizations threatened to sue the Trump administration, arguing the action can’t be reconciled with the EPA’s requirements under the law or science.
“The Trump administration is sacrificing our health, our safety, our economy, and our future by abandoning its core responsibility to keep us safe from extreme weather and accelerating climate change,” said Abbie Dillen, president of Earthjustice, an environmental law organization.
“This is a slap in the face for all of the millions of Americans who are experiencing the devastating costs of extreme heat, wildfires, flooding, and storms,” Dillen said. “Earthjustice and our partners will see the Trump administration in court.”
The American Lung Association, which also opposed the repeal, announced it would challenge the EPA’s new rule in court as well. “This is a dark day for science and health,” said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the lung association.
Trump, when asked about environmental concerns with the action, said his message to Americans is “don’t worry about it.”
“This has nothing to do with public health. This is all a scam, a giant scam,” Trump said. “This was a rip-off of the country by Obama and Biden.”
Does the move undermine science?
Most scientists and environmentalists categorically reject Trump’s dismissal of climate change. Climate advocacy groups pointed to statistics and studies that have concluded rising greenhouse gas emissions are driving more weather extremes, fueling more intense rainfall and more severe droughts.
Repealing the finding will bury “decades of research” and strip the agency’s ability to protect the nation from dangerous pollution, according to Climate Power, an advocacy group focused in part on holding fossil fuel interests accountable for the role they play in environmental policy.
“This decision will cost billions of dollars each year in addition to putting Americans’ health at risk,” stated Alex Witt, Climate Power’s senior adviser. “This decision makes it abundantly clear that Trump is willing to make our families sicker and less safe, all to benefit a few billionaire polluters.”
Loren Blackford, executive director of the Sierra Club, in a statement said, “The Trump administration is making it their official policy that our lives, our health, and our future are of no importance to them, only polluter profits.”
“Climate change is wreaking havoc right now, destroying communities and endangering our lives. Instead of fighting it, Donald Trump is instead just focused on helping corporate polluters profit,” Blackford said.
Who supports the repeal?
The fossil fuel and energy industries, as well as lobbying groups for freight and trucking, are among the biggest cheerleaders of Trump’s action to repeal the endangerment finding.
That includes the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry, which opposed the Obama-era decision to declare the finding.
Mike Summers, CEO of the API, applauded the Trump administration for undoing “costly and unrealistic tailpipe rules” from the Biden administration by repealing the endangerment finding. “This is a critical step toward restoring consumer choice and protecting the freedom of all Americans to decide what they drive,” Sommers said when the new EPA rule was first proposed in August 2025.
After the rule was first publicized last summer, the EPA received more than 570,000 public comments regarding its decision and posted about 30,000 of those on the federal docket.
Farming groups such as the Texas Vegetable Association also supported decision, saying it would lower prices that directly benefit both growers and consumers. Eliminating the endangerment finding will “relieve Texas growers of burdensome expenses, restore competitiveness, and ensure reliable movement of fresh produce across supply chains,” wrote Jed Murray, the association’s government relations director.
Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver of USA TODAY
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
