President Donald Trump is set to dismantle federal greenhouse gas regulations on Feb. 12 when he rescinds the 2009 Obama-era Endangerment Finding, the White House has announced.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin is expected to join Trump during the ceremony.
“This will be the largest deregulatory action in American history and it will save the American people $1.3 trillion in crushing regulations,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing on Feb. 10.
The EPA projects the average person will save $2,400 per vehicle on the purchase of new vehicles, SUVs, and trucks with the new regulatory changes.
“This is just one more way this administration is working to make life more affordable for everyday Americans overall,” Leavitt said.
Legal Backbone of Climate Rules
The endangerment finding traces back to a 2007 Supreme Court decision, in Massachusetts vs EPA, which held that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane qualify as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.The EPA told The Epoch Times that the finding became “the legal prerequisite used by the Obama and Biden Administrations to justify trillions of dollars of greenhouse gas regulations covering new vehicles and engines.”
Without it, the agency said, it would lack authority under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act to set certain vehicle emission standards.
The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on Aug. 1, 2025, and drew more than 500,000 public comments before the comment period closed on Sept. 22, 2025.
The EPA has previously said that while carrying out its core mission of protecting the environment, it is committed to advancing Trump’s agenda to expand American energy production.
“Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission,” Zeldin said in a March 2025 statement.
Other Trump administration officials have reinforced that economic message.
At a Feb. 3 event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said concerns about regulation outweigh concerns about long-term temperature increases.
“The existential threat is not a degree of climate change at 2100,” Burgum said. “The existential threat is that we were going to regulate ourselves out of business.”
He said that restrictions on logging, mining, and oil and gas development limited the country’s ability to use its resources.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright made a similar case in a Feb. 4 interview with Newsmax, linking energy production to wages and global competitiveness.
“He wants to lower prices and raise wages,” Wright said of Trump.
Industry Split on Scope
Industry reaction has been more nuanced, particularly regarding how far the repeal should go.On Jan. 12, American Petroleum Institute (API) President Mike Sommers said the group supports repealing the endangerment finding as it applies to vehicles, but not to stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities.
“We would not support repealing the endangerment finding for stationary sources,” Sommers told reporters, adding that it is clear the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from those sources.
His comments build on a July 29, 2025, API statement backing Zeldin’s proposal to repeal vehicle greenhouse gas standards.
“We support Administrator Zeldin’s proposal to repeal the Biden administration’s costly and unrealistic tailpipe rules,” Sommers said then, calling it “a critical step toward restoring consumer choice.”
Environmental advocates say the repeal would strip away the scientific and legal basis for climate action.
On March 12, 2025, Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said, “Removing the endangerment finding even as climate chaos accelerates is like spraying gasoline on a burning house."
He cited 27 climate disasters costing more than $1 billion in the previous year and said overturning the finding would create “enormous risks for people, wildlife and our economy.”
The Environmental Defense Fund warned on Nov. 24, 2025, that rescinding the finding would increase pollution and economic costs.
“If Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin moves forward with this dangerous action, it would put more deadly pollution in our air and hit Americans in their pocketbooks with higher insurance, gas, and healthcare costs,” the group said.