Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced yesterday that his agency will reconsider the 2009 Endangerment Finding, a scientific determination that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide threaten public health and welfare of current and future generations, as well as all actions that rely on it.
This move, announced by Zeldin in a video posted to X as part of “the greatest day of deregulation in U.S. history,” could unravel decades of climate policy, handing a major win to fossil fuel interests that have spent years—and millions of dollars—lobbying to kill it. It’s a major step in President Trump’s agenda to promote oil, gas, and coal production, and a reward to the fossil fuel executives he recruited to raise money for his campaign.
The Endangerment Finding, officially titled the "Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases Under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act," emerged from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA. That decision forced the EPA to assess greenhouse gas risks after years of delay, leading to the 2009 conclusion that six gases endanger human health through climate impacts like heatwaves, storms, and worsened air quality. Backed by assessments of reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other climate research organizations, the ruling has been upheld by federal courts, including the D.C. Circuit in 2012.
It’s the legal foundation for many of the EPA’s climate regulations, and reversing it could lead to the cancellation of vehicle greenhouse emissions standards, carbon pollution standards for power plants, the oil and gas methane emissions standard, and more. Daren Bakst, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told NPR that reversing it "would preclude future greenhouse gas regulations."
