On Feb. 12, the United States repealed the so-called endangerment finding, a 2009 cornerstone rule that enabled the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as a pollutant.
Established under former President Barack Obama, the rule codified the long-held scientific consensus that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.”
In repealing the endangerment finding, the EPA removed the legal and scientific foundation for regulating greenhouse gases, effectively clearing the path to do away with climate-related emissions limits for vehicles, industry and fossil fuel extraction.
“This decision betrays the American people,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a social media post. He said the decision will “lead to more deadly wildfires, more extreme heat deaths, more climate-driven floods and droughts … all while the EPA dismisses the overwhelming science that has protected public health for decades.”
The move comes as climate scientists warn that the last three years have been the warmest three years on record, and global emissions are set to push the Earth past 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) of warming since the industrial revolution, passing the threshold set by the Paris climate agreement.
Although that limit has not yet been formally crossed, the world is already feeling widespread climate impacts. In 2025, more than 87 million people were affected by climate-related disasters. Meanwhile, conservationists warn that climate change is pushing vulnerable species toward extinction and threatening human health.
Philip Landrigan is director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health with Boston College. In an email to Mongabay, Landrigan gave a laundry list of the many ways that “increased emissions will have serious negative consequences for human health.” Those include increased deaths from heat exhaustion, preterm birth, increased spread of diseases and waterborne illnesses, crop failures and subsequent hunger, heart disease, stroke and lung disease.
Despite the scientific consensus otherwise, U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
In a press release, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said, “The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans.”
In a social media post, former President Obama said that without the rule, “we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.”
The oil industry directly donated some $75 million to President Trump’s campaign for president.
Governor Newsom and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have already announced plans to sue the administration over the decision.
“EDF will challenge this decision in court, where evidence matters, and keep working with everyone who wants to build a better, safer and more prosperous future,” EDF president Fred Krupp said in a statement.
Banner image: Smokestack pollution. Image courtesy of Robert S. Donovan via the National Security Archive.
