The Trump administration is officially proposing to rescind a landmark 16-year old administrative ruling that greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public, a move that would limit the government’s ability to issue rules aimed at curbing climate change. 

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday the agency is set to overturn its 2009 conclusion, known as the Endangerment Finding, that greenhouse gas emissions are harmful to the environment and human life. He was scheduled to issue an official announcement in Indianapolis later in the day.

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The 2009 Endangerment Finding determined that six greenhouse gases found in the atmosphere that are generated by human activity, including carbon dioxide and methane, threaten public health and welfare. It was supported by a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that affirmed greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act. 

The finding authorized the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from sources such vehicles and power plants, and has underpinned three administration’s worth of rules aimed at curbing such emissions. 

“This has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion,” Zeldin said on the conservative Ruthless podcast.

Zeldin said the order meant the EPA could, but did not have to, regulate greenhouse gas emissions. He said emissions standards were a distraction and the agency change is “an economic issue.”

“We want clean air, land, and water. Conservatives love the environment, want to be good stewards of the environment,” he said.

In addition to repealing the finding, the EPA is expected to walk back limits on tailpipe emissions imposed under the Biden administration. Republicans have likened these restrictions to a mandate on consumers to adopt electric vehicles. 

The proposal comes roughly one month after the EPA sent it to the White House for review, which consisted of meetings held by the Office of Management and Budget with environmentalists, industry groups, and the state of Indiana’s environmental protection agency.  

If the EPA is successful in repealing the ruling, it would threaten all existing federal limits on greenhouse gas pollution and prevent future administrations from imposing similar regulations to mitigate climate change. 

It is the latest move from the Trump administration to steer the federal government away from climate change mitigation and toward boosting fossil fuel production. 

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has removed mentions of climate change from federal websites, halted enforcement of pollution rules at some power generation facilities, eliminated research and development offices, fired researchers studying the effects of climate change, and imposed several policies aimed at making renewable energy development more difficult. 

Environmental experts and scientists have warned that rolling back emissions standards contradicts scientific findings on the danger of climate change. 

“It is callous, dangerous, and a breach of our government’s responsibility to protect the American people from this devastating pollution,” the Environmental Defense Fund said.

The action would mark one of Trump’s most aggressive actions to date to change federal policy as it relates to climate change, which he has repeatedly claimed is a “hoax.”

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Jeffrey Clark said in a post to X that the move would be the “largest proposed deregulatory action in American history” and could save the national economy up to $8.2 trillion between 2027 and 2055.

“Americans love their traditionally powered cars and trucks. Never forget that the Obama and Biden Admins tried to put us on a path to take them from us,” he said. “The amount of vast consumer surplus generated by the gas-powered car literally fuels the American Dream.”

In the proposed recession, the EPA is expected to not challenge the science behind the 2009 endangerment finding and the Supreme Court decision that preceded it, but instead lean on a technical-legal argument. 

Previous reporting indicated that the agency will claim that it overstepped its legal authority under the Clean Air Act and that the Supreme Court ruling did not require the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. 

Zeldin first said in March that the agency would reconsider the finding, as part of his broader effort to “end the Green New Deal.” At the time, Zeldin said the EPA would be moving to overhaul 31 green and climate-related regulations in order to lower the cost of living. 

The agency has broadly insisted that the finding had unduly burdened the public. 

In March, Clark claimed the finding failed to consider downstream costs imposed on vehicles and factories. 

“Under the enlightened leadership of President Trump and Administrator Zeldin, the time for fresh thought has finally arrived,” he said. 

In Zeldin’s confirmation hearing, he declined to say whether he believed the EPA had a responsibility to regulate climate change. 

ZELDIN MOVES TO UNDO BIDEN ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’ AND EV RULES WITH SWEEPING DEREGULATION

“It was not a decision of the Supreme Court that if there was a fire in 2025 in California, that if that fire creates a danger to people…then that triggers the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide. There’s just more to that,” Zeldin said in January. 

The proposed rollback of the 2009 finding is widely expected to be challenged in court and will be subject to a public comment period.