What if a single regulatory decision could roll back the very progress that propelled America to global leadership? That’s exactly what happened in 2009, when the Obama administration’s endangerment finding declared carbon dioxide — a gas essential for life — a “pollutant.” In one stroke, the executive branch took a sledgehammer to the foundation laid by the industrial revolution, which built the world’s strongest economy and ushered in modern prosperity.

Fifteen years later, that misguided finding remains the shaky foundation for costly mandates such as former President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle rule, scheduled to take effect in 2027.

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THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IS FAR FROM ‘SETTLED’

President Donald Trump saw this ploy for what it was — a wolf in sheep’s clothing pushed by special interest groups — and pledged to fight it. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s recent proposal to rescind the Endangerment Finding is the boldest step yet in delivering on that promise.

The endangerment finding was never about science — it was about power. It grew out of lawsuits filed by environmental groups in the late 1990s, and then was weaponized after the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), which declared that greenhouse gases could be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Rather than letting Congress debate the issue, President Barack Obama’s EPA declared that CO₂ and other greenhouse gases “endanger public health,” twisting a law written in 1970 to regulate smog and soot into a catch-all regulatory loophole for substances with no toxicological effect at ambient levels. Essentially, the Obama administration knew that even a Congress completely controlled by Democrats could not pass a law expanding the Clean Air Act to legitimately authorize such blatant regulatory overreach. The endangerment finding also created a massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to left-wing groups, politicians, corporations, and NGOs that stood to benefit.

The result? More than $1 trillion in regulations, according to EPA estimates. That means higher costs for automakers and consumers, as well as rules that few drivers asked for — like the mandatory “stop-start” systems that shut off engines at traffic lights. The endangerment finding became the lynchpin for the entire Green New Deal scheme — laying the groundwork for heavy-handed bureaucratic decrees that had zero to do with safety and everything to do with pushing a radical climate agenda through the courts.

The Biden-Harris administration took it even further, using the endangerment finding to justify its EV mandate, which is still scheduled to take effect in just two years. If left in place, it would essentially ban gas-powered cars and force families into higher-priced electric vehicles, all while deepening America’s reliance on Chinese supply chains for minerals and batteries. Even with subsidies, EVs remain far more expensive than many conventional cars, and ordinary families would be left footing the bill.

If the endangerment finding is repealed, Americans could save up to $54 billion annually, according to multiple analyses. That means lower sticker prices, more job opportunities at home, and more freedom of choice for consumers.

This is not about rejecting environmental stewardship. America already leads the world in emissions reductions — more than any other nation since 2005 — because of free-market innovation, not top-down mandates. Advances in cleaner natural gas, nuclear technology, and efficiency gains have done more to lower emissions than any bureaucratic ploy.

Rules stemming from the endangerment finding have imposed sweeping restrictions at huge costs while failing to have a meaningful effect on the climate. Constituting a mere 0.042% of all atmospheric gases, CO₂ is absolutely essential for all plant life and agriculture to feed humanity and all animals in the great cycle of life on our planet.

THE EPA’S ENDANGERMENT FINDING WAS ABOUT CONTROL, NOT THE ENVIRONMENT

The regulations derived from the endangerment finding are projected to reduce global temperatures by just a fraction of a degree. We’re talking about changes so small that the benefits are outweighed by the excessive economic burdens. In other words: all pain, no gain.

The bottom line is this: Rescinding the endangerment finding will restore power to Congress and the people, not unelected bureaucrats or activist judges. It was always a political maneuver masquerading as science. Its repeal will restore common sense, protect jobs, and put families back in the driver’s seat — literally.

Rep. Brian Babin represents Texas’s 36th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives and serves as chairman of the House Science Committee.