The “holy grail” of climate regulations set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 may be eliminated by the Trump Administration.
“There’s so much about this that was unprecedented, filled with mental leaps not included in the plain text or the precedent at the EPA,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said of the 2009 finding at an announcement in Indianapolis on Tuesday, as reported by POLITICO.
Since 2009, the Endangerment Finding of the Clean Air and Water Act has served to direct the federal government on the dangers of greenhouse gases and was the basis for the majority of the EPA’s climate regulations.
The proposal comes as scientists warn that greenhouse gases will cause the earth to warm more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, an international goal intended to postpone the worst impacts of climate change on humanity. And after the United Nations’ International Court of Justice ruled that all humans have a right to be protected from climate change, and any nations that do not take action to prevent climate change will be subject to international law.
Most recent EPA data reveals that 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States come from transportation sources, including cars and trucks. Trump has sought to repeal President Joe Biden-era standards for coal- and natural-gas power plants and nullified California‘s clean vehicle rules.
“EPA Administrator Zeldin’s decision today to overturn the landmark Endangerment Finding represents a disturbing new level of extreme science denial by the very agency entrusted to protect the American public from pollution. The scientific consensus is overwhelming and has been well-established for decades — greenhouse gas pollution from cars, power plants, and factories is causing climate change and climate change is endangering our public health and welfare. This is not theoretical. We can see it with our very own eyes. Whether it’s the catastrophic flash floods in Texas, the wildfires that demolished Californian communities, or the scorching heat dome currently enveloping half of the U.S., it is no longer a question whether climate change endangers our lives. Climate change is already wreaking havoc across America. By ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus, contradicting the clear statutory language in the Clean Air Act, and overriding repeated Supreme Court rulings, EPA has revealed today just how far it will go to be every polluter’s ally,” House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) leaders said in a statement Tuesday.
SEEC leaders, including Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Quigley, and Paul Tonko and Vice Chairs Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia, Suzanne Bonamici, Sean Casten, Mike Levin and Chellie Pingree, sent a letter in February 2025 condemning Zeldin’s reported recommendation to strike down EPA’s Endangerment Finding.
“This is no empty threat. EPA is already using this absurd climate denialism to justify repealing life-saving vehicle pollution standards that have delivered clean air to communities across America. These standards would have saved thousands of lives and thousands of dollars per vehicle in fuel, maintenance, and repair costs, while paving the way for a globally competitive American vehicle market. As international markets rapidly transition away from polluting fossil fuels to cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable technologies, the Trump Administration is choosing to deprive America of the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century,” the leaders said Tuesday.
American children will pay the price with an unsafe and unhealthy future with every rollback of Republicans on common-sense pollution protections.
“Is it not enough that we’ve lost at least 500 Americans in the past year to extreme weather events; that today 215 million people in the United States are currently living under an extreme weather alert; or that climate-fueled disasters in just the past year have already cost the American economy $182 billion dollars?” the SEEC said.
The SEEC questioned how many more Americans must die before Republicans stand up to big polluters and acknowledge the reality of climate change.
On Sunday, activists with Climate Defiance disrupted Zeldin during his speech at the Global Breakfast Forum, held at The Hamptons Synagogue in his former congressional district, New York’s District 1. Young Jewish activists challenged Zeldin to oust himself as a climate denier and said “the Torah commands us to be stewards of the Earth, not the oil industry.” Community members responded with vitriol. One even attacked a protester with a chair, saying it was their right to do so.
Under Zeldin’s leadership at the EPA, the community who supported him throughout his political career now face greater risks. The Hamptons, surrounded by waterways, was impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and faces intensifying storms, rising seas, beach erosion and flooding — all worsened by the accelerating climate crisis.
Since Zeldin’s appointment, the EPA has boasted the most rollbacks on regulations in its history. If the Endangerment Finding is overturned, the administration will bury the agency having any real stance on the worsening climate crisis. The EPA argues that the real threat of the finding to public health is “higher prices and reduced consumer choices.” The economic vs environmental dichotomy is an old song for the administration and climate deniers, with Zeldin declaring he would be an EPA administrator for “energy dominance” after Trump’s election.
“You have taken nearly half a million from fossil fuels,” Protestor Nathaniel said. He asked what authority Zeldin or the EPA has to undo its environmental protections in favor of economic ones under its mandate.
“There are projections from leading economic bodies such as the World Bank and IMF – far from liberal or leftist institutions – that are very clear on the severe economic consequences of inaction on the climate crisis. One report states up to half of global GDP could be on the chopping block this century, and those are just the economic impacts. The impact on life, human and otherwise, will be much worse,” Nathaniel said.
Using the Project 2025 Tracker, a tool online for up to date progress of the Heritage Foundation’s infamous plan shows that 57 percent of its climate goals have been accomplished.
A member of Extinction Rebellion NYC, who collaborated on the protest, said: “Heritage has long been helmed by fossil fuel interests like Koch Industries, which has done some of the heaviest lifting to make sure nothing is done on climate change in the U.S. The majority of these wishes have been executed by Zeldin himself, and through Trump, who asked for $1 billion from oil companies in a dinner at Mar a Lago during his campaign. His ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ is a wish list directly penned in Project 2025. And when we hit 4 degrees of warming this century, we will know the true cost of these deadly practices.”
Climate Defiance is a youth led organization that uses nonviolent direct action to humiliate climate criminals to strip them of their power, shake society awake, and end the era of fossil fuels. Since its inception at the White House Correspondents’ dinner in April 2023, the organization has been featured across major media outlets including CBS, The New York Times, The Guardian and Rolling Stone, and gone viral on social media for confrontations with figures like West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Bill Gates, The Heritage Foundation and Darren Woods of ExxonMobil.
Climate Defiance‘s goals are to end fossil fuel extraction on federal lands and waters; end sacrifice zones and usher in a just transition for the most impacted; stand in solidarity with sister-struggles for racial and economic justice; and deploy mass turnout, disruptive direct action to compel politicians to act with the urgency the moment deserves. Ultimately, the organization works to elevate climate change to a top-three political issue in American politics.
U.S. Reps. Jennifer McClellan of Virginia and Paul Tonko of New York led 73 House members in sending a letter last week to Zeldin urging the EPA to immediately retract its harmful proposal to weaken the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
“It is the mission of EPA to protect human health and the environment. To achieve these goals, Congress gave EPA authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate hazardous air pollutants, like mercury and arsenic from power plants. Rolling back the MATS rule is a cruel abandonment of the agency’s statutory obligations that will endanger children’s health, harm communities and let the worst industrial polluters off the hook,” the lawmakers wrote.
Coal-fired power plants emit mercury and other toxic pollutants that poison the air and water. The pollution impacts individuals and families living on the fence line and downwind of the facilities, particularly communities of color and low-income communities, who are more likely to live near coal-fired power plants and be exposed to dangerous pollution.
“The standards set by the 2024 rule for mercury and air toxics pollution are not only achievable, but the majority of power plants were either already meeting them or only required small changes to comply. Weakening these commonsense standards would allow for the worst of the worst industrial polluters to ratchet up their hazardous emissions. The Trump Administration is already giving out free passes for power plants to pollute and concealing the process for granting exemptions from the public, allowing some of the biggest corporate polluters to increase toxic air pollution into nearby communities without accountability,” the lawmakers wrote.
Strong standards have successfully limited mercury pollution by 90 percent and decreased other dangerous air pollutants. A recent study estimated that eliminating more than 30 EPA protections that protect our air, water, and climate would cost $275 billion dollars and more than 30,000 lives each year.
“By rolling back the MATS rule, the Trump Administration is choosing corporate polluters over the health and lives of everyday Americans across the country. We implore you to keep our communities and the environment safe from health-harming pollution by stopping this reckless rollback, extending the comment period to 75 days to allow for meaningful public engagement, and committing to holding multiple public hearings to allow affected fence line communities ample opportunities to be heard in this process,” the lawmakers concluded in their letter.
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Rebecca Barnabi
