White House Repeals 2009 Endangerment Finding, Promises $1.3 Trillion Savings

On February 12, 2026, the Trump administration repealed the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 “Endangerment Finding,” a scientific determination that six greenhouse gases—including carbon dioxide—posed a threat to public health by “polluting the climate.”

The move, described as the largest deregulatory action in American history by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, is expected to save consumers approximately $1.3 trillion through lower automobile costs. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated that regulations built on the Endangerment Finding “placed new vehicles further out of reach for American families,” and that the Biden administration’s push for electric vehicle mandates had forced automakers to scale back traditional gasoline and diesel trucks.

President Trump declared during a White House press briefing that the Endangerment Finding was “a hoax made up by people with evil intentions” and had “no basis in fact, none whatsoever.” He added that repealing it would end “crippling restrictions” on vehicles that he claimed drove up car prices by 22% without achieving meaningful environmental impact.

The administration cited the repeal as a response to the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), which had previously invalidated Obama-era CO2 emission limits for power plants. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also noted that the regulations “had no basis in law” and were part of a “green new scam.”

The repeal does not affect existing environmental protections for air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone, particulate matter, lead, and carbon monoxide.

Background analysis reveals that in March 2009, the EPA withheld publication of a 98-page report by senior scientist Dr. Alan Carlin, who argued that the agency’s scientific foundation for the Endangerment Finding violated federal requirements for accuracy and impartiality. Emails from the EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics director Al McGartland indicated that Carlin was instructed to cease work on climate issues.

The administration emphasized that the repeal is limited to greenhouse gases and does not reverse regulations on traditional health-based air pollutants.