August M
A crowd gathered outside the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington on Wednesday, warning of sweeping consequences for US climate policy.
Lawmakers and environmental advocates said they would challenge what they described as the most significant rollback of federal climate protections in years.
Legal pillar targeted
According to reporting by The Guardian, the Trump administration is preparing to rescind the 2009 “endangerment finding,” the scientific and legal determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the repeal will be finalized by President Donald Trump and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday.
The finding underpins federal authority to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. Its removal would dismantle the legal basis for a wide range of emissions standards.
The administration has described the move as the “largest deregulatory action in American history,” claiming it could save Americans $1.3tn, though officials have not detailed how that figure was calculated.
In a statement emailed to media outlets, an EPA spokesperson said the finding had been used to “justify trillions of dollars of greenhouse gas regulations covering new vehicles and engines”.
Accusations of corruption
At Wednesday’s rally, Democratic lawmakers sharply criticized the plan. “This is corruption, plain and simple. Old-fashioned, dirty political corruption,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
“This is an agency that has been so infiltrated by the corrupt fossil fuel industry that it has turned an agency of government into the weapon of the fossil fuel polluters,” he added.
Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts also accused EPA leadership of serving industry interests. Zeldin is saying to the fossil fuel industry, you now are gonna get what you paid for,” Markey said. “This is cash and carry: you give us the cash, and then we carry away all of the environmental protections.”
Whitehouse told The Guardian before the rally: “I think Trump’s children and the Trump family will live to be ashamed of that award,” referring to the president’s recent “Undisputed Champion of Coal” recognition from the Washington Coal Club.
Promised legal fight
Environmental organizations including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club pledged court challenges once the rollback is formalized.
“We’re going to be taking this fight to the courts, and we are going to win,” said Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Experts cited by The Guardian note that the endangerment finding is grounded in extensive peer-reviewed science and has repeatedly been upheld in federal courts. Joseph Goffman, former assistant administrator of EPA’s office of air and radiation, said: “Science did not change when Donald Trump was inaugurated.”
“What did change was the arrival of the new EPA management, determined to destroy the agency’s public health and environmental mission,” he added.
Broader energy push
The move aligns with Trump’s campaign pledge to expand fossil fuel production. On Wednesday, he signed an executive order directing the defense department to increase coal power procurement.
Leavitt said earlier this week: “Clean, beautiful coal is not only keeping the lights on in our country but also driving down the cost of electricity across the country as well.”
Critics argue the rollback could increase climate-related damages and health costs, while reshaping environmental politics ahead of the next election cycle.
Sources: The Guardian; statements from the White House; remarks at EPA rally.
