Trump's EPA revokes scientific finding that underpinned US fight against
climate change
[February 13, 2026]
By MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a
scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action
to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the most
aggressive move by the Republican president to roll back climate
regulations.
The rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency rescinds a
2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding that
determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten
public health and welfare. The Obama-era 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.
The repeal eliminates all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars
and trucks and could unleash a broader undoing of climate regulations on
stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities,
experts say. Legal challenges are near certain.
President Donald Trump called the move “the single largest deregulatory
action in American history, by far,” while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin
called the endangerment finding “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory
overreach.”
Trump called the endangerment finding “one of the greatest scams in
history,” claiming falsely that it “had no basis in fact” or 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,”
Trump said at a White House ceremony, although scientists across the
globe agree that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are driving
catastrophic heat waves and storms, droughts and sea level rise.
Environmental groups described the move as the single biggest attack in
U.S. history against federal authority to address climate change.
Evidence backing up the endangerment finding has only grown stronger in
the 17 years since it was approved, they said.
“This action will only lead to more climate pollution, and that will
lead to higher costs and real harms for American families," said Fred
Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund, adding that the
consequences would be felt on Americans' health, property values, water
supply and more.
The EPA also said it will propose a two-year delay to a Biden-era rule
restricting greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks. And the
agency will end incentives for automakers who install automatic
start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles. The device is intended to
reduce emissions, but Zeldin said “everyone hates” it.
Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who was tapped by Trump to lead
EPA last year, has criticized his predecessors in Democratic
administrations, saying that in the name of tackling climate change,
they were “willing to bankrupt the country.”
The endangerment finding “led to trillions of dollars in regulations
that strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including
the American auto industry,” Zeldin said. “The Obama and Biden
administrations used it to steamroll into existence a left-wing wish
list of costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates and other
requirements that assaulted consumer choice and affordability.”
The endangerment finding and the regulations based on it “didn’t just
regulate emissions, it regulated and targeted the American dream. And
now the endangerment finding is hereby eliminated,” Zeldin said.
Supreme Court has upheld the endangerment finding
The Supreme Court ruled in a 2007 case that planet-warming greenhouse
gases, caused by the burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are air
pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
Since the high court’s decision, in a case known as Massachusetts v.
EPA, courts have uniformly rejected legal challenges to the endangerment
finding, including a 2023 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit.
The endangerment finding is widely considered the legal foundation that
underpins a series of regulations intended to protect against threats
made increasingly severe by climate change. That includes deadly floods,
extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters
in the United States and around the world.
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President Donald Trump speaks during an event with Environmental
Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin announcing that the EPA will
no longer regulate greenhouse gases, in the Roosevelt Room of the
White House, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan
Vucci)
Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who served as White House
climate adviser in the Biden administration, called the Trump
administration's actions reckless. "This EPA would rather spend its
time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting
us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,” she
said.
Former President Barack Obama said on X that repeal of the
endangerment finding will make Americans “less safe, less healthy
and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel
industry can make even more money.”
Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and executive director of the Medical
Society Consortium on Climate and Health, said Trump's action
“prioritizes the profits of big oil and gas companies and polluters
over clean air and water” and children's health.
“As a result of this repeal, I’m going to see more sick kids come
into the Emergency Department having asthma attacks and more babies
born prematurely,” she said in a statement. “My colleagues will see
more heart attacks and cancer in their patients.”
David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense
Council, said Trump and Zeldin are trying to use repeal of the
finding as a “kill shot’’ that would allow the administration to
make nearly all climate regulations invalid. The repeal could erase
current limits on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, factories,
power plants and other sources and could hinder future
administrations from imposing rules to address global warming.
The EPA action follows an executive order from Trump that directed
the agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing
applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some
congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they
consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit
greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Withdrawing the endangerment finding “is the most important step
taken by the Trump administration so far to return to energy and
economic sanity,” said Myron Ebell, a conservative activist who has
questioned the science behind climate change.
Tailpipe emission limits targeted
Zeldin and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have moved to
drastically scale back limits on tailpipe emissions from cars and
trucks. Rules imposed under Democratic President Joe Biden were
intended to encourage U.S. automakers to build and sell more
electric vehicles. The transportation sector is the largest source
of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
The Trump administration announced a proposal in December to weaken
vehicle mileage rules for the auto industry, loosening regulatory
pressure on automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered
cars and trucks. The EPA said its two-year delay to a Biden-era rule
on greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks will give the
agency time to develop a plan that better reflects the reality of
slower EV sales, while promoting consumer choice and lowering
prices.
Environmental groups said the plan would keep polluting, gas-burning
cars and trucks on U.S. roads for years to come, threatening the
health of millions of Americans, particularly children and the
elderly.
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