US EPA Repeals the Endangerment Finding: Big Blow to the Fight Against Climate Change

From attacking agencies and organisations engaged in lifesaving climate research, gutting pollution standards and withdrawing from international climate agreements to halting investments in climate resilience, boosting fossil fuels and blocking funding for renewable energy projects — the targeted campaign of the US President Donald Trump’s administration against climate change and the clean energy transition has been clear from day one.

In its latest move, the US leadership agreed to remove the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for certain sectors. According to scientists, market experts and even representatives of the automotive industry, which is supposed to benefit from the decision, the move may go down in history as the most destructive step in President Trump’s agenda against climate action.  

The US Environmental Protection Agency Revokes the Endangerment Finding, Removing Regulatory Requirements For Emission Reporting Within the Automotive Sector

In February, the Trump administration decided to revoke the “endangerment finding” and remove the regulatory requirements for the automotive industry to measure, report, certify and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards. The key Obama-era scientific ruling categorised a range of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, as a threat to public health. By repealing it, the EPA effectively removes the scientific and legal basis for the federal regulation of greenhouse gases, weakening protections for people, the environment and the economy.

As per the official statement, the EPA was “eliminating both the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding and all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond”.

Some experts argue that the move might also affect other industries, including power plants, the oil and gas sector, methane from landfills and even aircraft. Currently, fossil fuel infrastructure is regulated under a separate section of the Clean Air Act, but there are concerns that the move will open the door to end those standards.

With the move, the US administration effectively ignores the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet. Authorities explained the move by saying that greenhouse gas emissions don’t endanger human health, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum saying, “CO2 was never a pollutant.”

The White House described the revocation as the “largest deregulation in American history”, arguing it would make cars cheaper, bringing down costs for automakers by USD 2,400 per vehicle. Trump administration officials also promised that overturning the regulation would save more than USD 1 trillion and help cut energy and transport costs.

However, even automotive industry representatives, including from Honda and Ford, didn’t agree with the repealing of the regulation, noting that it would cause instability, market fragmentation and technological stagnation.

EPA’s Decision to Bear Massive Consequences

EPA Press Secretary Brigit Hirsch stated that, under President Trump, the EPA was “proving what previous administrations refused to accept, that we can protect the environment”. She continued, “We are delivering cleaner air, land, and water while driving economic expansion.”

In the official statement, the EPA also claims that by using the same types of models utilised by the previous administrations and “climate change zealots,” it found that even if the US were to eliminate all GHG emissions from all vehicles, “there would be no material impact on global climate indicators through 2100”.

Scientists and experts argue the opposite. According to estimates, the automotive sector accounts for 30% of US emissions, making it the largest single source of greenhouse gases in the country, while also being the fastest-growing one. Under former President Joe Biden, the EPA aimed to reduce passenger vehicle tailpipe emissions by nearly 50% by 2032, compared with 2027 projected levels and forecast that between 35% and 56% of new vehicles sold between 2030 and 2032 would need to be electric. 

However, by stripping the automotive industry of its emission-reduction rules, the Trump administration risks reversing the progress the US has made since 2009, when the endangerment finding was introduced.  

According to Peter Zalzal from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the move would cause up to 58,000 additional premature deaths and 37 million more asthma attacks. Meanwhile, if the planet continues to warm at its current rate, exposure to wildfire smoke would kill an estimated 70,000 Americans each year by 2050. 

The EDF estimates that, instead of saving Americans money as promised by the Trump administration, the move will cost around USD 1.4 trillion in additional fuel expenses to power less efficient, higher-polluting vehicles. It will also accumulate USD 4.7 trillion in additional climate- and air pollution-related expenses by 2055. Furthermore, the group estimated that the move would generate as much as 18 billion additional tonnes of planet-warming pollution by that time, equal to China’s annual emissions, further fueling the climate crisis.

The US isn’t immune to it. According to research by Climate Central, climate change has made extreme weather disasters over the past four decades in the US far more savage. For example, the cost of all disasters between 1985 and 1995 was USD 299 billion, compared with USD 1.4 trillion in losses over the past decade. In total, researchers estimate that 2025 ranks as the third-highest year after 2023 and 2024 for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, with 23 such events totalling USD 115 billion in damages. 

Last year, the United States experienced 23 extreme weather events, each causing damage exceeding USD 1 billion. In 2024, the country’s southeastern region endured more than USD 78 billion in damage from Hurricane Helene alone.

Concerns Are Mounting that the EPA Will Lift Emission Restrictions on Power Plants

US President Trump’s second term in office is no short of moves intended to undermine the global clean energy transition and climate action. Earlier, the US administration quit the UNFCCC, the Paris Agreement, the IPCC, and over 60 other treaties and organisations. According to the Sabin Center’s Climate Backtracker, as of the beginning of March 2026, the Trump administration has taken over 320 actions to scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures.

For example, in February, the EPA also moved to roll back rules protecting against chemical disasters after chemical firms claimed they were too expensive to implement, despite the country experiencing a chemical accident harming humans or the environment every other day on average between 2004 and 2025. The agency also plans to let go of employees who helped disadvantaged communities long burdened with pollution.

Yet, experts consider the repeal of the endangerment rule the latest in a playbook to serve the oil and gas industry at the expense of Americans and the one with the most far-reaching and long-term consequences, especially if the Trump administration proceeds with stripping the restrictions on power plants as well. Researchers are concerned that the likelihood of going in that direction remains high, with the revocation of the endangerment finding being the first step. 

In fact, the Trump administration has already announced its intention to repeal GHG regulations for fossil fuel power plants and to delay the implementation of methane regulations for oil and gas operations, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum saying, “The whole endangerment thing opens up the opportunity for the revival of clean, beautiful American coal.”

Over the past year, the US Energy Department has been working to revive the coal industry, including ordering eight coal-burning units that had been headed for retirement to keep running, with concerns mounting that more utilities could follow suit now that the Trump administration is relaxing pollution rules. 

In February, the Trump administration also said it is loosening restrictions on air toxins from mercury, lead, and other heavy metals released by coal plants, even though analysis found no reason to do so, since most US coal plants could already meet air pollution rules. As a result, a minority of the US’ dirtiest, most dangerous and unhealthy coal plants are now able to operate without restrictions. 

Last but not least, right after President Trump revoked the endangerment rule, he directed the Pentagon to begin buying more electricity from coal-fired power plants, reversing an order from Biden’s administration requiring federal agencies to buy more electricity from emission-free sources. As a result, coal executives awarded Trump a trophy as the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal”.

However, even the American Petroleum Institute, a top US oil lobby group that backed the repeal of the endangerment finding for vehicles, isn’t supporting a similar move for stationary sources of pollution, such as power plants. Yet, sources cited by Bloomberg argue that the administration’s end goal is to get the issue before the Supreme Court, hoping its conservative majority will uphold the repeal, severely restricting the EPA’s ability to enact climate rules long after Trump leaves office.

EPA’s Decision: A Call For Other Countries to Step Up and Accelerate Climate Action

In 2025, when the first signs of President Trump’s plans to revoke the endangerment finding surfaced, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists immediately took legal action. Others followed once the US administration made the move official. The Governor of the State of California, Gavin Newsom, announced intentions to challenge President Trump’s “illegal action” in court, warning that, if it did survive legal challenges, it would lead to “more deadly wildfires, more extreme heat deaths, more climate-driven floods and droughts and greater threats to communities nationwide”.

Several health and environmental justice groups launched a joint lawsuit against the EPA’s rollback of the endangerment finding. 

However, since legal battles could take years to resolve, the world will have to suffer the consequences of the Trump administration’s latest move to destabilise global efforts to slow down climate change. In the meantime, other countries would have to scale up climate action further and demonstrate even stronger ambition to compensate for the damage that US leadership is inflicting on global efforts to tame the climate crisis, especially if it proceeds to revoke restrictions on power plants. 

Aside from the direct and indirect consequences, the move also carries significant symbolism: the environmental agency of the world’s biggest historical polluter is turning against climate action and denying climate science. Scientists even warn there is every reason to believe this won’t be the last of the Trump administration’s attempted attacks on the nation’s capacity to act on climate.

If that turns out to be the case, the consequences will extend far beyond US borders. Regarding the climate crisis, when the US sneezes, climate-vulnerable regions like Southeast Asia are the first to catch a cold. And the symptoms indicate this one might be the worst to date.