The Trump administration is set to repeal an Obama-era scientific finding that serves as the legal basis for federal greenhouse-gas regulation, marking the largest rollback of regulations in U.S. history.
The evidence is now in... and it confirms what many of us have been saying for years.
— Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki (@MatthewWielicki) February 10, 2026
The Obama EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding was pre-cooked.
According to newly highlighted Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) documentation, EPA political appointees were calling the… pic.twitter.com/mfk7QIkCq8
From the Wall Street Journal:
The reversal targets the 2009 “endangerment finding,” which concluded that six greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. The finding provided the legal underpinning for the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate rules, which limited emissions from power plants and tightened fuel-economy standards for vehicles under the Clean Air Act...
The final rule, set to be made public later this week, removes the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify and comply with federal greenhouse-gas emission standards for motor vehicles, and repeals associated compliance programs, credit provisions and reporting obligations for industries, according to administration officials.
New data shows that the 2009 endangerment finding is obsolete and misrepresents the evidence of the effect of CO2 emissions on the climate. It’s time to end the EPA’s reliance on the endangerment finding’s flawed science. pic.twitter.com/0haDpCr1R9
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) August 5, 2025
“This amounts to the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin added in an interview.
While the move would not directly affect emissions standards for power plants or oil and gas facilities, the rollback is expected to affect vehicle emissions standards and could open the door for the Trump administration to target environmental regulations more broadly.
"Repealing the Endangerment Finding is an essential step toward restoring sanity to federal energy and vehicle policy. Implemented by Obama-era bureaucrats, it has been used for years to justify costly and needless mandates that have driven up the price of cars and trucks," Jason Isaac, the CEO of the American Energy Institute, said. "Ending it dismantles the legal backbone of those mandates, delivers relief to consumers, and opens the door to rolling back similar regulatory overreach across the energy sector. This action restores the Clean Air Act to its intended purpose, reins in agency power the Supreme Court has already warned against, and returns major policy decisions to the people’s elected representatives.”
Environmental groups are expected to challenge the move in court.
The Environmental Defense Fund said that reversing the finding would “eliminate some of our most vital tools to protect people from the pollution that causes climate change," and that the Trump administration is actively seeking to make air dirtier for Americans.
However, the Trump administration views the move as a necessary step toward unleashing American energy and driving down costs for consumers.
“More energy drives human flourishing,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. “Energy abundance is the thing that we have to focus on, not regulating certain forms of energy out.”
"President Trump continues to deliver for the American people," James Taylor, the President of the Heartland Institute, said. "The Obama administration's Endangerment Finding was a wrong-headed, politicized determination that defied science and stifled the American people. CO2 is the gift of life for planet Earth, not a pollutant or a threat to public health and welfare."
While the move should be lauded as a great success, some warn that the move can easily be undone by future administrations.
Steve Milloy, a former Trump EPA Transition Team Advisor and Senior Fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, argued that the next step should be overturning Massachusetts v. EPA, which allowed the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. By overturning the Supreme Court decision, the Trump administration can ensure that the EPA is not allowed to simply regulate as it sees fit, and it must instead go through Congress, and in turn, the American people.
"Rescinding the endangerment finding is great, but it’s not the ballgame. Not only does the rescission have to stand up in court, it must result in the overturning of the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, where the Court wrongly ruled that EPA could regulate greenhouse gases even though Congress did not expressly authorize it," Miloy said. "The 2022 SCOTUS decision in West Virginia v. EPA held that EPA must have express congressional authorization for major regulatory programs. So, endangerment finding litigation must result in West Virginia v. EPA trumping Massachusetts v. EPA. Even if the Trump EPA wins in court with respect to rescinding the endangerment finding, without also overturning Massachusetts v. EPA, the next Democrat-run EPA will simply re-issue the endangerment finding, and all the Trump EPA’s great work will have been erased."
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
Help us continue to report on President Trump's successes. Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member