Trump Repeals Obama-Era ‘Endangerment Finding’ In Historic Move

President Donald Trump has revoked the Obama administration’s 2009 “Endangerment Finding,” the legal foundation that allowed the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for more than 16 years. The White House describes the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement as the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.

The EPA said in a formal statement that the rule “eliminates 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.”

“For sixteen years, the Endangerment Finding has been the source of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said. “The Trump EPA is strictly following the letter of the law, returning commonsense to policy, delivering consumer choice to Americans, and advancing the American Dream.”

President Trump announced the repeal in the Roosevelt Room alongside Zeldin, calling the action “the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”

“Under the process just completed by the EPA, we are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding,” Trump said. “It was a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers. It had no basis in law.”

The 2009 Endangerment Finding, established during the Obama administration under EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, determined that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases endangered public health and welfare. That decision became the legal cornerstone for federal climate regulations on vehicles, power plants, and major industries.

Trump said the repeal was a necessary correction. “The Endangerment Finding was used to justify over a trillion dollars in regulations, and none of it was authorized by Congress,” the president said. “We are putting an end to government overreach that hurt jobs, hurt families, and hurt our economy.”

EPA officials said the rule will save Americans more than $1.3 trillion by removing regulatory mandates tied to the greenhouse gas program and compliance credits, including the unpopular “start-stop” feature on vehicles.

“As an added bonus, we are eliminating the universally despised start-stop feature—the Obama switch that made every car stall at red lights in the name of climate virtue-signaling,” Zeldin said.

The EPA emphasized that the repeal applies only to greenhouse gas emissions and does not affect existing standards for traditional pollutants such as sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides.

“The agency firmly believes the 2009 Endangerment Finding exceeded the EPA’s statutory authority under the Clean Air Act,” the final rule stated. “A policy decision of this magnitude, which carries sweeping economic and policy consequences, lies solely with Congress.”

Zeldin said the agency’s decision was based on recent Supreme Court rulings, including West Virginia v. EPA and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which limited the regulatory power of federal agencies. “We looked at the Clean Air Act, we looked at what the highest court in the land said, and we used a very simple metric,” Zeldin said. “If Congress didn’t authorize it, EPA shouldn’t be doing it.”

The 2009 finding stemmed from the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which ruled that greenhouse gases could be regulated as air pollutants if the agency determined they endangered human health or welfare. Obama’s EPA made that determination shortly after taking office, using it to justify sweeping environmental regulations.

Trump’s move effectively reverses that approach, returning the EPA to a narrower interpretation of its authority. “We are following the law as Congress wrote it, not as activists wish it to be,” Zeldin said.

Conservative legal advocates and energy groups praised the decision. The Pacific Legal Foundation said in a statement that “the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding triggered a trillion-dollar regulatory cascade that Congress never authorized.” The group added that the repeal “restores the principle that decisions of this magnitude require clear congressional authorization, not bureaucratic improvisation.”

Zeldin closed the announcement by reaffirming the administration’s broader energy goals. “The Endangerment Finding was the ‘Holy Grail’ of the climate change religion,” he said. “Today, that era is over. The Trump EPA is delivering energy independence, consumer freedom, and the rule of law back to the American people.