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‘EXCEPTIONALLY DANGEROUS’: TRUMP EPA TARGETS ENDANGERMENT FINDING
THAT ENABLES CLIMATE RULES  
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Jessica Corbett
July 29, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "Zeldin's assertion that the EPA shouldn't address greenhouse gas
emissions is like a fire chief claiming that they shouldn't fight
fires," said one critic. "It is as malicious as it is absurd." _

Donald Trump reacts as former Rep. Lee Zeldin speaks at a rally ahead
of the New Hampshire primary election in Concord, New Hampshire, on
Jan. 19, 2024., Photo by Elizabeth Frantz/ Reuters

 

U.S. President Donald Trump
[[link removed]]'s administration faced
an onslaught of criticism on Tuesday for starting the process of
repealing the 2009 legal opinion
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greenhouse gases endanger public health and the welfare of the
American people—which has enabled federal regulations aimed at the
fossil fuel-driven climate emergency over the past 15 years.

Confirming reports
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last week, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee
Zeldin un
[[link removed]]veiled
[[link removed]] the rule
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rescind the 2009 "endangerment finding" at a truck dealership in
Indiana. According to _The New York Times_, he said
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"the proposal would, if finalized, amount to the largest deregulatory
action in the history of the United States."

If the administration succeeds in repealing the legal finding, the EPA
would lack authority under the Clean Air Act to impose standards for
greenhouse gas emissions—meaning the move would kill vehicle
regulations. As with the reporting last week, the formal announcement
was sharply condemned by climate and health advocates and experts.

"Greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and are the root
cause of the climate crisis," said Deanna Noël with Public Citizen's
Climate Program, ripping the administration's effort as "grossly
misguided and exceptionally dangerous."

"Stripping the EPA of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases is like
throwing away the fire extinguisher while the house is already
burning," she warned. "The administration is shamelessly handing Big
Oil a hall pass to pollute unchecked and dodge accountability, leaving
working families to bear the costs through worsening health outcomes,
rising energy bills, more climate-fueled extreme weather, and an
increasingly unstable future. This isn't just a denial of science and
reality—it's a betrayal of public trust and yet another signal that
this administration is working for corporate interests, and no one
else."

Noël was far from alone in accusing the administration's leaders of
serving the polluters who helped Trump return to power.

"Zeldin and Trump are concerned only with maximizing short-term
profits for polluting corporations and the CEOs funneling millions of
dollars to their campaign coffers," said Jim Walsh, policy director
at Food & Water Watch
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assertion that the EPA shouldn't address greenhouse gas emissions is
like a fire chief claiming that they shouldn't fight fires. It is as
malicious as it is absurd."

Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe
Climate Transport Campaign, similarly said that the proposal is
"purely a political bow to the oil industry" and "Trump is putting
fealty to Big Oil over sound science and people's health."

Earthworks policy director Lauren Pagel also called the rule "a
perverse gift to the fossil fuel industry that rejects yearslong
efforts by the agency, scientists, NGOs, frontline communities, and
industry to protect public health and our environment."

"Donald Trump [[link removed]] and Lee
Zeldin are playing with fire—and with floods and droughts and public
health risks, too," she stressed, as about 168 million Americans on
Tuesday faced
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for extreme heat made
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likely by the climate crisis.

Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees
Council 238, which represents over 8,000 EPA workers nationwide, said
that the repeal plan "is reckless and will have far-reaching,
disastrous consequences for the USA."

"EPA career professionals have worked for decades on the development
of the science and policy of greenhouse gases to protect the American
public," he continued, "and this policy decision completely disregards
all of their work in service to the public."

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) highlighted
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Chris Wright, head of the Department of Energy, joined Zeldin at the
Tuesday press conference and "announced a DOE 'climate science study'
alongside remarks that were rife with climate denial talking points
and disinformation."

UCS president Gretchen Goldman said that "it's abundantly clear what's
going on here. The Trump administration refuses to acknowledge robust
climate science and is using the kitchen sink approach: making every
specious argument it can to avoid complying with the law."

"But getting around the Clean Air Act won't be easy," she added. "The
science establishing climate harms to human health was unequivocally
clear back in 2009, and more than 15 years later, the evidence has
only accumulated."

David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the Environmental
Integrity Project, was a lead attorney in the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court
case _Massachusetts vs. EPA_, which affirmed the agency's authority
to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act and ultimately
led to the endangerment finding two years later.

Bookbinder said Tuesday that "because this approach has already been
rejected by the courts—and doubtless will be again—this baseless
effort to pretend that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses that
cause climate change are not harmful pollutants is nothing more than a
transparent attempt to delay and derail our efforts to control
greenhouse pollution at the worst possible time, when deadly floods
and heat waves are killing more people every day."

In a statement from the Environmental Protection Network, which is
made up of ex-EPA staff, Joseph Goffman, former assistant
administrator of the agency's Office of Air and Radiation, also cited
the 2007 ruling.

"This decision is both legally indefensible and morally bankrupt,"
Goffman said of the Tuesday proposal. "The Supreme Court made clear
that EPA cannot ignore science or evade its responsibilities under the
Clean Air Act. By walking away from the endangerment finding, EPA has
not only broken with precedent; it has broken with reality."

Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement
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EPA proposal with defiance, declaring that "Donald Trump
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donors are lighting the world on fire and fueling their private jets
with young people's lives. We refuse to be sacrifices for their greed.
We're coming for them, and we're not backing down."

_Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common
Dreams._

* Climate Change
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* EPA Regulations
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* Trump
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* anti-science
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