❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Trump administration repealed the 2009 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) endangerment finding, which linked greenhouse gases to climate change and served as the foundation for numerous federal climate regulations.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Donald J. Trump, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, environmental groups, and state leaders such as California Governor Gavin Newsom and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The announcement was made on Thursday at a White House event.
💬KEY QUOTE: “This determination had no basis in fact, had none whatsoever, and it had no basis in law. On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty and all over the world,” said President Donald Trump.
🎯IMPACT: The rollback eliminates key limits on greenhouse gas emissions, potentially increasing pollution and sparking legal challenges from environmental groups and state leaders.
President Donald J. Trump, alongside Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, announced the repeal of the former Obama government’s onerous 2009 EPA endangerment finding, a regulation that tied greenhouse gases to climate change. The decision effectively dismantles the legal foundation for many federal climate policies, including vehicle emission standards and methane emission rules.
The National Pulse reported last July that the EPA revealed it intended to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding. At the time, Zeldin characterized the move as “basically drive a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.”
Trump described the policy as “a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers.” He asserted the move would “eliminate over $1.3 trillion of regulatory cost and help bring car prices tumbling down dramatically.”
EPA Administrator Zeldin called the repeal “the single largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.” He criticized the 2009 finding as an “ideological crusade” that led to “trillions of dollars in regulations” and “strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including the American auto industry.”
The Trump White House is billing the policy move as part of its deregulation agenda, which aims to reduce government barriers faced by American manufacturers and lower consumer costs. However, radical environmentalist groups and Democrat lawmakers are condemning the repeal.
In a joint statement, Governors Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Tony Evers (D-WI) wrote, “This action is unlawful, ignores basic science, and denies reality. We know greenhouse gases cause climate change and endanger our communities and our health — and we will not stop fighting to protect the American people from pollution.”
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