Trump reverses key Obama-era climate ruling in major regulatory shift

US President Donald Trump has reversed a landmark 2009 scientific determination that has underpinned federal efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for more than a decade.

Announcing the move at the White House on February 12, Trump described the repeal as the “largest deregulation in American history.” The White House said the decision would make cars more affordable, estimating that it would reduce costs for automakers by about $2,400 per vehicle, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

The so-called “endangerment finding,” adopted during the administration of former President Barack Obama, concluded that a range of greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. The finding became the legal foundation for federal actions aimed at curbing planet-warming emissions, particularly from vehicles.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said the 2009 ruling was “a disastrous Obama era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers”.

“This radical rule became the legal foundation for the Green New Scam, one of the greatest scams in history,” added the Republican president, referring to the Democrats’ climate agenda.

Environmental groups have condemned the decision, calling it the most significant rollback of US climate policy to date. Several organisations have indicated they plan to challenge the repeal in court.

“Without it, we'll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money,” Obama wrote on X.

Trump, who has previously described climate change as a “hoax” and a “con job”, argued that the endangerment finding lacked scientific and legal basis. The endangerment finding, he argued, is “one of the greatest scams in history”, adding that it “had no basis in fact” or law.

He hailed the repeal of the endangerment finding as “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far”.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who also attended the ceremony, described the endangerment finding as “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach”.

Legal experts note that rescinding the endangerment finding would repeal all federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks. It could also pave the way for a broader rollback of climate regulations affecting stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities.

By Sabina Mammadli