The endangerment finding has played a role in protecting human health from industrial emissions – Image: Jim Lo Scalzo/dpa/picture alliance
The USA has revoked what’s known as the endangerment finding, a scientific finding central to US climate actions, to boost cheaper, gas-powered cars. Experts say the shift comes at a fragile point for the warming planet.
In what the White House has described as the “largest deregulatory action in American history,” President Donald Trump has undone a key scientific finding that has been the cornerstone of United States efforts to fight climate change for more than 16 years.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, the president officially rescinded a 2009 Obama-era government declaration known as the endangerment finding. It has served as a key part of the green policies later introduced by former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
“This determination had no basis in fact, had none whatsoever, and no basis in law,” Trump said, calling it a “giant scam” that had “severely damaged the auto industry.”
He dismissed concerns that the repeal could cost lives by worsening climate change, instead insisting it will “help bring car prices tumbling down dramatically.”
“You’re going to get a better car, you’re going to get a car that starts easier, a car that works better, for a lot less money,” said Trump.
Trump was open about his plans to drill for more oil during his second term in office – Image: AP Photo/Alex Brandon/picture alliance
What is the 2009 endangerment finding?
The landmark scientific finding, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in December 2009, was the legal framework that allowed the EPA to regulate planet-warming emissions seen as a threat to “public health and welfare of current and future generations.”
A previous ruling by the Supreme Court, the 2007 case known as Massachusetts v. EPA, gave the agency the authority to enact policies that targeted heat-trapping emissions — carbon dioxide, methane and other pollutants.
The policies first targeted car and truck exhaust, and later expanded to include emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants and the oil and gas industry.
The Trump administration has questioned the science behind the 2009 decision, arguing that the effects of emissions on human health are indirect and that US regulation is insufficient to tackle a global problem.
But scientists and environment experts have widely backed the finding, with the nonprofit American Geophysical Union saying it is “grounded in decades of rigorous, peer-reviewed climate science.”
Trump and his administration have argued that the EPA’s finding gave the federal government too much power, holding back businesses and innovation and raising prices.
“Many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in July 2025. He said the costs related to greenhouse gas regulations for cars and trucks had been a “real threat to Americans’ livelihoods.”
The White House has said undoing the environmental regulation will expand access to affordable, reliable energy. Trump added Thursday that the move would save Americans more than $1.3 trillion by removing regulatory requirements related to vehicle emissions standards, and other related programs.
Environmental analysts have pointed out the savings don’t take into account the increasing costs associated with the impact of climate change on human health, biodiversity loss and extreme weather events.
Scientists are clear on the link between rising temperatures and extreme weather events, such as the flooding caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida in October 2024 – Image: BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP
What does this mean for US climate efforts?
With the endangerment finding eliminated, the EPA will lose its ability to use the 1963 Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases.
“It represents a complete USA step away from renewable energy and energy efficiency in favor of full embrace of expanded production and use of fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas,” Barry Rabe, environmental and public policy professor at the University of Michigan, told DW in July 2025.
The repeal of the endangerment finding will slow efforts to require the USA auto industry to sell less-polluting cars and trucks, while curtailing federal support for the growing electric vehicle sector. The previous Biden administration had set a nonbinding goal to have EVs (electric vehicles) make up at least 50% of new car sales by 2030.
“The transportation sector is the single largest source of USA global heat-trapping emissions,” said Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization, in a statement on Thursday. “Ramming through this unlawful, destructive action at the behest of polluters is an obvious example of what happens when a corrupt administration and fossil fuel interests are allowed to run amok.”
Environment groups have said the move also risks being extended to a rollback of limits on carbon emissions and other pollutants from power plants and the fossil fuel industry, invalidating nearly all climate regulations. As a result, increased pollutants could worsen air quality and further contribute to the hazardous effects of climate change — deadly heat waves, destructive flood and extreme storms.
The move to loosen EPA oversight comes as an international team of researchers issued an urgent warning this week, saying that the destabilization of Earth’s feedback loops could amplify the consequences of global warming after millions of years of a stable climate.
“We’re now moving away from that stability and could be entering a period of unprecedented climate change,” said William Ripple, ecology professor at Oregon State University in the USA, adding that it put Earth at increased risk of a “hothouse” trajectory.
Trump’s move to scrap the endangerment finding is just the latest attack on US climate and environmental regulations.
Since beginning his second term in January 2025, the president has withdrawn the USA from international climate commitments, including the 2015 Paris Agreement, slashed environmental protections, suppressed climate research and boosted the fossil fuel industry.
Just this week, Trump ordered USA military bases and facilities to buy their electricity from power plants fueled by “beautiful clean coal,” citing the unreliability of renewable energy.
Trump has made no secret of his disdain for wind power – Image: picture-alliance / Rolf Richardson / Spectrum
Could this decision be challenged in court?
Critics of Trump’s decision, including the Environmental Defense Fund and the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice, have said they plan to challenge the move in court, potentially taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court. But that could take years, and until then the endangerment finding — and all the policies it created — will no longer apply.
“People nationwide will pay the price for this illegal action,” said Manish Bapna, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council advocacy group, calling out Trump for giving a “free pass to oil billionaires.”
“With no protections in place, climate change will worsen — that means more air pollution, more health problems, higher energy bills, and more extreme storms. Science and the law won’t allow it to stand.”
While they have welcomed EPA’s move, some power companies are worried that rescinding the finding will expose them to a surge of “public nuisance” lawsuits targeting activities that unreasonably interfere with the health and safety of a community.
“This may be another classic case where overreach by the Trump administration comes back to bite it,” Robert Percival, a University of Maryland environmental law professor, told the Reuters news agency earlier this week.
DW.com/NAN 15-2-26
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