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Donald Trump has long called climate change a “hoax.” Some of his appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency have made clear over the first six months of the president’s second term that they feel similarly.
The EPA is reportedly preparing to rescind a landmark 2009 declaration, known as the “endangerment finding,” which determined that greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to humans. The finding was the legal predicate for regulating emissions under the Clean Air Act, as well as for the government’s ability to regulate car emissions and pollution more broadly.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in March that the agency would consider rescinding the declaration, asserting that the administration would not “sacrifice national prosperity, energy security, and the freedom of our people for an agenda that throttles our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choice while benefiting adversaries overseas.” The New York Times reports that the EPA will make a similar argument in rescinding the declaration, claiming that the real danger to human health is climate regulation — on automakers, for instance —which leads to higher prices for consumers. The Washington Post notes that the draft of the formal rescission of the declaration would formally eliminate federal regulations on auto emissions.
The news of the impending order to trash the “endangerment finding” comes days after the EPA announced it is going to totally eliminate its Office of Research and Development. The EPA’s scientific research arm studied the effects of greenhouse gases, chemicals, wildfires, and other hazards, providing analyses that undergirded federal environmental policy.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback,” Zeldin said in a statement. “This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars.”
Trump has been doing what he can to hamstring America’s ability to combat climate change since taking office. He promptly pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, signed an order clamping down on offshore wind, revoked former President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, and declared a “national energy emergency” allowing fossil fuel companies to “drill, baby, drill.” Trump has continued to trash clean energy initiatives, and the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” he coerced Republicans into passing is a veritable bonanza for polluters.
Zeldin has been a willing participant in Trump’s war against the environment, despite heading up the agency that is theoretically supposed to be protecting it. Zeldin seems more concerned with protecting his standing in the administration. “The biggest reason why we’re here is that this is the 100th day of the most consequential, historic first 100 days in the history of this country,” he gushed during a Cabinet meeting to commemorate Trump’s first 100 days in office.
The EPA’s reported decision to rescind the “endangerment finding” is certainly “consequential” and “historic” —only in the worst way possible.
