The Trump administration dismantled one of the federal government’s core building blocks for fighting climate change, finalizing a rule that wipes out the EPA’s 2009 determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized the change this week. The decision rescinds the 2009 “Endangerment Finding,” a scientific and legal conclusion that has served for nearly two decades as the rationale for regulating heat-trapping pollution, especially from cars and trucks, under the Clean Air Act.
In plain terms, the 2009 finding was the federal government saying: carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are not just nuances; they threaten people’s health and safety by driving rising temperatures and worsening extreme weather. That conclusion helped the EPA build major climate rules affecting the transportation sector, power plants and large industrial polluters.
Now, with the finding removed, the administration says the EPA no longer has a clear mandate to regulate climate pollution the way it has in recent years. One immediate effect: the EPA is pulling federal greenhouse-gas “tailpipe” standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles, undoing rules that applied to model years 2012 through 2027 and beyond. The administration has also signaled that limits for power plants and other big emitters could be targeted next.
The White House and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin describe the rollback as a major deregulatory step that will cut red tape, lower the cost of new vehicles, and save consumers more than $1.3 trillion. They argue earlier climate rules were overly burdensome and based on flawed assumptions about future warming.
Climate advocates and public health groups say the move could be a serious blow to efforts to slow planetary warming
The decision is also headed straight into court. Environmental groups and several states have already filed challenges in the D.C. Circuit, arguing the EPA is ignoring the scientific record and abandoning its duty to protect public health.
Guest:
Cyrus Reed is the Sierra Club-Texas Legislative and Conservation Director,
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This episode will be recorded on Thursday, February 19, 2026, at 12:30 p.m.
