By Ending EPA’s “Endangerment Finding” Trump May Be Delivering a Fatal Blow To Regulatory Climate Overreach
Washington, DC (February 11, 2026) – The Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency is officially seeking to repeal the “Endangerment Finding,” which allows unelected bureaucrats to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases as a threat to public health. President Trump’s EPA action is one of the most significant climate moves the administration has taken.
This 2009 Obama Administration climate rule has been the legal foundation for regulating the U.S. economy by placing restrictions on cars and electricity generation by bypassing Congress. The underlying basis for the Endangerment Finding is that CO2 and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and must be regulated under the Clean Air Act. This would come as quite a surprise to the legislators who wrote and voted for the Act.
Craig Rucker, CFACT President:
CFACT applauds EPA Administrator Zeldin’s bold reversal of the 2009 “Endangerment Finding.” The Obama EPA exceeded its authority when it classified carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act (CAA). This reversal marks a return to sanity, reining in bureaucrats gone wild. Unelected regulators have too often indulged in regulatory overreach, exceeded their authority, and imposed needlessly burdensome regulations on the American economy.
At its core, the Endangerment Finding defies basic science and common sense. CO2, the odorless, colorless, gas you just exhaled, is essential to life. It is what plants rely on for photosynthesis to produce oxygen and food. We are all made of that carbon. Labeling it a “pollutant” is absurd, akin to declaring water vapor a threat. A rigorous cost/benefit analysis reveals the folly: trillions in economic costs from climate mandates that yield no meaningful environmental benefits, stifle innovation, jobs, and energy independence and distract from genuine environmental priorities.
The CAA was never intended for this. Congress designed it to combat genuine pollutants such as sulfur dioxide or particulates that cause direct, tangible health risks. The Obama EPA exceeded the authority Congress granted it, thereby violating the separation of powers that is the bedrock of our Constitution.
The Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA applied the “major questions” doctrine to curtail bureaucratic power grabs. The Court held that in matters of vast economic and political significance, agencies must have explicit congressional authorization. Reversing the Endangerment Finding restores federal regulators to their proper role: administering the law as written, not inventing expansive new powers that bypass the democratic process.
EPA and other regulators must ensure environmental policy serves nature, people and prosperity, not ideological agendas.
Americans deserve policies grounded in reality, promulgated through constitutionally valid processes, not ideologically-driven regulatory excess.
Marc Morano, publisher of CFACT’s Climate Depot:
Trump 2.0 is moving decisively to deliver a fatal blow to the climate agenda. The second term of the Trump administration, led by EPA’s Lee Zeldin (the most consequential EPA chief in the agency’s history!), is boldly focusing on implementing PERMANENCE in climate and energy policy.
Removing the CO2 Endangerment Finding from our lives will remove the legal basis for the misguided nonsense in the name of climate we’ve had to endure for the last several decades.
The Trump administration needs to ensure that this revocation of the government’s authority to regulate CO2 withstands the flood of legal challenges.
Tossing out the EPA’s CO2 Endangerment Finding, combined with the already announced withdrawal of the U.S. from the UN climate treaty process (AKA the 1992 RIO Earth Summit treaty) are two of the most momentous actions any president has taken to restore sanity to climate policy.
The Trump Administration’s goal is to ensure that future administrations can’t quickly reimpose harmful climate and energy policies by skipping the legislative process. This will make America much safer from any future climate wreckage inflicted by potential presidents such as Gavin Newsom or AOC.
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