EPA Voids Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding for Vehicles

---

Written by John Egan for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

---

Summary

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday voided its own finding from 2009 that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles endangered the public health. The February 12 announcement also eliminated all greenhouse gas (GHG) vehicle emission standards that were based on the Endangerment Finding. The final rule, which took less than one year to prepare, was limited to mobile sources such as cars and trucks. It likely will be challenged in court. But if upheld by courts, the repeal of the Endangerment Finding could form the basis for undoing a wide range of other U.S. energy and environmental rulemakings that were based on that finding.

---

EPA Final Rule Voids its Own Endangerment Finding

In a White House event on Thursday, President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency was withdrawing the agency's own finding from 2009 that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from motor vehicles endangered public health and welfare as well as "all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond." It was unclear if the EPA would issue future rulemakings to undue mobile emission standards enacted since 2012 that were based on that 2009 finding.

The final rule is almost certain to be challenged in court.

Although a text of the final rule was not immediately available, Zeldin emphasized that it would only apply to vehicle emission standards for cars, light-duty trucks and heavy-duty trucks. "Today's action does not change the regulation of traditional air pollutants or air toxics," Zeldin said.

Why This is a Big Deal

Still, withdrawing the 2009 Endangerment Finding would be like demolishing a building's foundation. That finding formed the basis for numerous environmental and energy regulations were established or revised during the Obama and Biden administrations. If Thursday's final rule survives court challenge, it could form the basis for rolling back regulations in other industries that relied on the 2009 finding, including on power plant emissions.

Zeldin and Trump estimated Thursday's action would save taxpayers over $1.3 trillion. They agreed it would lower the price of a new vehicle by an average of $2,400. Vehicle prices "will be tumbling down dramatically," the president predicted. "You're going to be getting a better vehicle, a vehicle that works better, for a lot less money."

"This is the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history, by far," Trump commented in a White House ceremony. "We are terminating the so-called Endangerment Finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for a worse product."

Trump and Zeldin took turns slamming the finding itself and the regulations based on it. "The Endangerment Finding has no basis in fact, none whatsoever, and it had no basis in law," Trump said.

Zeldin added: "The Endangerment Finding and the regulations based on it didn't just regulate emissions. They regulated and strangled the American Dream." Obama and Biden used the Endangerment Finding to enact a "left-wing climate wish list of costly climate policies," the EPA chief maintained.

New Rule Based on Congressional Intent, Not Global Warming Science

The EPA's 2009 Endangerment Finding was based on years of climate science, an emerging consensus of climate scientists and an interpretation of a U.S. Supreme Court case that may, or may not, be upheld in the current more conservative court.

In voiding that finding, and the vehicle emissions standards based on it, the EPA did not attempt to contest the science. Instead, it focused on congressional intent in enacting the Clean Air Act (CAA).

In a statement, the agency said it "carefully considered and reevaluated the legal foundation of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and the text of the CAA in light of subsequent legal developments and court decisions. The agency concludes that Section 202(a) of the CAA does not provide statutory authority for EPA to prescribe motor vehicle and engine emission standards in the manner previously utilized, including for the purpose of addressing global climate change, and therefore has no legal basis for the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations."

"EPA firmly believes the 2009 Endangerment Finding made by the Obama Administration exceeded the agency's authority to combat 'air pollution' that harms public health and welfare, and that a policy decision of this magnitude, which carries sweeping economic and policy consequences, lies solely with Congress. Unlike our predecessors, the Trump EPA is committed to following the law exactly as it is written and as Congress intended--not as others might wish it to be."

GHG Emissions: The Long and Winding Road

The announcement follows a draft rule issued last summer by the EPA, which made good on one of Zeldin's pledge to review, revise or dismantle a wide range of environmental and energy regulations issued during the Obama and Biden presidencies. For more on the draft rule rescinding the EPA's GHG "endangerment" finding, see July 30, 2025, article - EPA Proposes to Repeal its Own GHG 'Endangerment' Finding. For more on the EPA's goal of reviewing and possibly repealing as many as 31 major environmental rules, see March 14, 2025, article - EPA Will Reconsider 31 Energy and Environmental Rules from Trump's Predecessors.

Thursday's action marks another step in a long, complicated and litigious road traveled by presidents, regulatory agencies, courts and energy companies over carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from mobile as well as stationary sources.

In a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Massachusetts v. E.P.A., the court ruled 5-4 that the CAA's definition of "pollutants" included CO2. That case concerned a section of the act that applied to new motor vehicles, not power plants. The court affirmed the EPA's ability to regulate new vehicle emissions under section 202(a)(1) of the CAA. The court instructed the agency to determine if those vehicle emissions endangered public health. If so, it said the agency was obligated to regulate them. The EPA said those emissions did threaten public health, principally by exacerbating global climate change, leading to the agency's 2009 endangerment finding.

The Obama administration used that finding to try to regulate power plant emissions of CO2. Transportation is the largest single source of CO2 emissions, followed by power plants that burn coal or natural gas, according to the EPA.

Eventually, the nation's high court ruled against power-plant CO2 regulation plans by the Obama and Biden administrations, as well as the first Trump administration.

GOP critics of Obama's and Biden's attempt to regulate power plant emissions of CO2 under the Endangerment Finding have asserted those presidents exceeded the intent of Congress when it enacted, and then revised, the Clean Air Act. But what further muddied the water over congressional intent is Congress' passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which repeatedly and specifically identified CO2 as a pollutant that was subject to regulation under the CAA. For more on that, see August 24, 2022, article - U.S. Congress Defines CO2 as Pollutant.

IIR Comment

Commenting on the Thursday announcement, IIR Senior Vice President of Research for Industrial Manufacturing David Pickering said, "This whole thing will probably end up in a big mess. Automakers have to deal with the entire world, not just a few Blue states and the current administration. They don't want to have to produce as many as three sets of identical vehicles: one compliant in Blue states, one compliant in Red states and a third compliant with the rest of the world."

"The automakers have to play this cautiously as they have already lost billions because of the rollback of electric vehicles (EVs). No one knows if these new rules, whatever they end up being, will last past this administration. Will the automakers have to reverse course again in three years, when a president of a different party may be sitting in the White House? Problems galore to deal with."

Key Takeaways

• On February 12, the EPA announced it was terminating its own 2009. Endangerment Finding for emissions from motor vehicles, and all of the vehicle regulations based on that finding for vehicle years 2012-2027.
• Litigation is virtually guaranteed. The case may wind up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
• President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the measure would lower the price of new vehicles by an average of $2,400. They added that the measure will save over $1.3 trillion.
• They asserted the measure would reinvigorate the domestic automaking industry.
• Although Zeldin said the action only applied to motor vehicles, he and Trump alluded to other industries that could benefit from the termination of the 2009 GHG Endangerment Finding.

---

About IIR News Intelligence
IIR News Intelligence is a trusted source of news for the industrial process and energy markets, powered by Industrial Info Resources' Global Market Intelligence (GMI).

About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 Trillion (USD).