The finding \u2014 which the EPA issued in 2009 \u2014 said that the global warming caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endangers the health and welfare of current and future generations. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are officially terminating the so called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama era policy,\u201d Trump said in a news conference Thursday. \u201cThis determination had no basis in fact \u2014 none whatsoever. And it had no basis in 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
Major environmental groups have disputed the administration’s stance on the endangerment finding and have been preparing to sue in response to its repeal. <\/p>\n
![\"Traffic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/211101-louisiana-refinery-ew-640p-5155df.jpg\")
Traffic moves along a stretch of roads near the Royal Dutch Shell and Valero Energy’s Norco refineries during a power outage caused by Hurricane Ida in LaPlace, La., on Aug. 30, 2021.Luke Sharrett \/ Bloomberg via Getty Images file<\/p>\n
The endangerment finding underpinned the EPA\u2019s ability to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from vehicles and power plants and to mandate that companies report their emissions. It required the federal government to take action on climate under the Clean Air Act.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court in 2007 ruled that the EPA had the authority to regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gases and acknowledged that harms associated with climate change are \u201cserious and well recognized,\u201d which led to the creation of the endangerment finding two years later. <\/p>\n
The White House and the EPA have called the finding’s repeal \u201cthe largest deregulatory action in American history.\u201d <\/p>\n
It’s the Trump administration\u2019s most significant attempt yet to diminish efforts to address climate change. The U.S. officially left the 2015 Paris Agreement for the second time last month and is also expected to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change<\/a>, leaving America without a meaningful voice in global climate talks. <\/p>\n Trump, who has called climate change a \u201ccon job,\u201d canceled nearly $8 billion in funding for clean energy projects in October (though a judge later ruled that some of those terminations were unlawful). And the Energy Department announced Wednesday that it will spend $175 million to extend the life of six coal plants<\/a> \u2014 the latest in a series of moves to prop up coal. <\/p>\n Last year was the third-warmest in modern history, according to the European Union\u2019s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The last 11 years have been the 11 hottest ever recorded.<\/p>\n Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also announced Thursday that the agency is removing all greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles. <\/p>\n “We are repealing the ridiculous endangerment finding and terminating all additional green emissions standards imposed unnecessarily on vehicle models and engines between 2012 and 2027 and beyond,” Trump said. <\/p>\n The EPA will still regulate pollutants in tailpipe emissions that hamper air quality, such as carbon monoxide, lead and ozone.<\/p>\n Barack Obama, whose administration established the endangerment finding, said in a statement<\/a> on Thursday that without it, Americans will be \u201cless safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change, all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. Climate Alliance, which is led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, said the repeal was \u201cunlawful, ignores basic science, and denies reality.\u201d <\/p>\n Several organizations have already announced their intention to sue, including the American Lung Association and American Public Health Association. <\/p>\n \u201cAs organizations committed to protecting public health, we will challenge this unlawful repeal,\u201d they said in a statement. <\/p>\n At a news briefing last month, Manish Bapna, the president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said it was also preparing a legal challenge, calling the expected repeal “a gift-wrapped package for the fossil fuel industry.”<\/p>\n “It is unscientific, it is bad economics and it is illegal, so we\u2019re going to fight it. We will see them in court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The legal battles will almost assuredly take years to resolve, with the administration\u2019s justifications for its repeal up against ample scientific evidence of climate change\u2019s harms in court.<\/p>\n In its draft of the rule repealing the endangerment finding, the EPA argued that it had overstated the risks of heat waves, projected more global warming than had taken place and discounted benefits of increases in carbon emissions, like increased plant growth. Independent science organizations have dismissed many of those arguments and pushed back against a controversial Energy Department report that the EPA cited in its proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe climate is changing faster than ever before, driven by human activities, and the resulting impacts on people and the world we depend on are becoming ever more dire,\u201d the American Geophysical Union said in a statement about the Energy Department report<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe changing climate is directly causing or exacerbating global average temperature increases and heat waves, sea level rise and storm surge, and ocean acidification, and is causing extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and drought to occur with greater frequency, intensity, or both.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/260210-Lee-Zeldin-ew-617p-4dfd12.jpg\")
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin listens to a question after a discussion with residents and business owners affected by the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles on Feb. 4.Mario Tama \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n