President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will \u201cformalize the rescission of the 2009 Obama-era endangerment finding\u201d at a White House ceremony, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The action \u201cwill be the largest deregulatory action in American history, and it will save the American people $1.3 trillion in crushing regulations,\u201d she said. The bulk of the savings will stem from reduced costs for new vehicles, with the EPA projecting average per vehicle savings of more than $2,400 for popular light-duty cars, SUVs and trucks, Leavitt said.<\/p>\n
The endangerment finding is the legal underpinning of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.<\/p>\n
It is used to justify regulations, such as auto emissions standards, intended to protect against threats made increasingly severe by climate change \u2014 deadly floods, extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters in the United States and around the world.<\/p>\n
Legal challenges are certain for any action that effectively would repeal those regulations, with environmental groups describing the shift as the single biggest attack in U.S. history on federal efforts to address climate change.<\/p>\n
![\"'Climate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2B37QLJPCFGYHHNRTKVRG3J73I.JPG\")
Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. addresses a news conference Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in City Hall warning of pollution and health impacts resulting from a federal rollback of greenhouse gas policy alongside, from left, state Rep. Robert Freeman, Shannon Crooker and Mary Ellen O’Connell.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania director of Generation180<\/a>, an advocacy group fighting climate change, cited the impacts on Lehigh Valley air quality from the proliferation of warehouses served largely by diesel-powered trucks.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our Clearing the Air report<\/a>, we found that nearly 70,000 children across Pennsylvania attend school or play within 500 meters of a major trucking corridor,\u201d the director, Shannon Crooker, said. \u201cThis exposes them to toxic diesel exhaust, linked to acute and chronic health concerns including asthma, reduced lung function, developmental delays, cardiovascular stress and increased cancer risk.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a public health issue and a budget issue, she said, with these \u201clong-term health impacts that families and school districts end up paying for.\u201d <\/p>\n EPA guidance on diesel emissions released Feb. 3 notes the agency \u201cis committed to keeping the protection of air quality and human health at the forefront<\/a> of every action the agency takes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt Generation180, we\u2019re working to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles from light to heavy duty and mid-sized vehicles, including electric school buses,\u201d Crooker said.<\/p>\n Mary Ellen O\u2019Connell, a registered nurse with the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments<\/a>, said studies already show \u201ca chronic-asthma epidemic\u201d in the Lehigh Valley. In its annual Asthma Capitals Report, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America has for years ranked the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area among the most challenging areas in the United States for people living with asthma<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI would invite all of you to take a moment and think about people in your family, people in your workplace, people in your social circle, your neighborhood,\u201d she said. \u201cHow many people do you know that are pregnant, have asthma, have COPD, have emphysema?\u201d<\/p>\n Freeman, D-Northampton, accused the Trump administration of \u201cwillful disregard of the reality that is climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n