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Donald Trump has revoked a scientific finding that has been the central in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions.
The Trump has rescinded a 2009 government declaration during barack Obama’s tenure known as the ‘endangerment finding’.
It determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.
The declaration is the legal underpinning of nearly all regulations to fight climate change under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources.
But Trump boasted rescinding it was ‘the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far’, describing it as ‘one of the greatest scams in history’.
He said: ‘On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world.’
Why has Trump rescinded ‘the endangerment finding’?
Donald Trump has boasted about rescinding the ‘endangerment finding’ (Picture: AFP)
The White House has said overturning the regulation will save more than $1 trillion.
The price of energy and transport will also be cut, with manufacturers’ costs reduced by $2,400 per vehicle.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a former member of the US Department of Transportation during Trump’s first term, told the BBC: ‘The burden on the economy results in higher prices and manufacturing has left. It’s gone to China, where it’s made in a dirtier way.
‘So to say that we’re reducing global emissions by ending energy intensive manufacturing in some countries, then having it go to China and India, where it’s made in a dirtier way, does not reduce global emissions.’
‘The Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach’
Meanwhile EPA administrator Lee Zeldin called the endangerment finding ‘the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach’.
Trump’s decision could lead to more action which repeals greenhouse emission standards for vehicles, and could unleash a broader undoing of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, experts say.
The top 10 costliest climate extreme events in 2025
Palisades and Eaton fires – United States – January – more than 60 billion US dollars
South and Southeast Asia cyclones – Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Malaysia – November – around $25 billion
Extreme rainfall and flooding – China – June to August – $11.7 billion
Hurricane Melissa – Jamaica, Cuba and Bahamas – mid- to late-2025 – $8 billion
Extreme monsoon rainfall, flooding and landslides – India and Pakistan – June to September – around $5.6 billion
Typhoons and tropical storms – the Philippines – mid-year to November – more than $5 billion
Drought – Brazil – January to June – $4.75 billion
Ex-tropical cyclone Alfred – Australia – February – $1.2 billion
Cyclone Garance – Réunion (East Africa) – February – $1.05 billion
Extreme rainfall and flash flooding – Texas, United States – July – $1 billion
Environmental groups described the move as the single biggest attack in US history against federal authority to address climate change.
Evidence backing up the endangerment finding has only grown stronger in the 17 years since it was approved, they said.
The EPA also said it will propose a two-year delay to a Biden-era rule restricting greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks.
And the agency will end tax credits for automakers who install automatic start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles. The device is intended to reduce emissions but Mr Zeldin claimed ‘everyone hates’ it.
Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who served as White House climate adviser in the Biden administration, called the Trump administration’s actions reckless.
‘This EPA would rather spend its time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,’ she said.
EPA has a clear scientific and legal obligation to regulate greenhouse gases, Ms McCarthy said, adding that the health and environmental hazards of climate change have ‘become impossible to ignore’.
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