EPA ADMINISTRATOR ZELDIN: We finally demolished the Democrat climate insanity
For 16 years, the so-called Endangerment Finding has been the weapon of choice for climate change zealots in Washington. Created by the Obama EPA in 2009, it justified trillions of dollars in regulations, restricted which cars could be manufactured, and drove up the cost of living for American families. It pushed this country toward an unpopular electric vehicle mandate, imposed crushing compliance requirements, and promoted a new level of government overreach that has made hardworking Americans' blood boil.
On Thursday, standing alongside President Trump in the White House, I was proud to announce that the Endangerment Finding has been eliminated — and with it, all federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles and engines that followed.
This is the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history, and it will save American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion. The action will result in average savings of more than $2,400 per vehicle. By eliminating regulatory compliance costs, we are making it easier for families to buy the car they actually want — improving affordability and helping Americans reach jobs, grow small businesses and participate fully in the transportation and logistics systems that power the U.S. economy.
As an added bonus, the incentive for one of the most unpopular features in modern vehicles — the automatic start-stop system — has been eliminated. I heard how much Americans hate this feature while visiting all 50 states this past year. The system shuts off the engine at red lights, drains batteries faster and delivers no meaningful environmental benefit. It was nothing more than a climate participation trophy — a regulatory incentive that let automakers claim green credits on paper without delivering real-world results.
Automakers should never be forced to adopt — or be rewarded for — technologies Americans don't want. The Trump EPA will choose consumer choice over climate posturing every time.
Let me be clear about why we took this action: The American people demanded it, and the law required it. The Obama administration stretched the Clean Air Act beyond recognition to claim that carbon dioxide from tailpipes — combined with five other gases, some of which vehicles do not even emit — constituted "air pollution" that contributed to global climate change and endangered public health and welfare. For decades, the EPA understood that the Clean Air Act addressed pollution that directly harms people's health in their communities — not global climate policy. But the Obama-Biden administration twisted the law to seize power it was never given, and the Endangerment Finding was its weapon of choice.
Since then, the Supreme Court has made clear in landmark decisions such as Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and West Virginia v. EPA that agencies cannot twist statutes to seize power Congress never granted. Major policy decisions of this magnitude belong to Congress, not unelected bureaucrats. Unlike our predecessors, the Trump EPA follows the law as written and as Congress intended — not as climate activists might wish it to be.
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These same activists do not want Americans to know that their wildly unfounded predictions never came true. The Endangerment Finding was built on projections and assumptions that did not materialize over the past 16 years. The same types of models relied on by previous administrations and climate activists to bolster the Endangerment Finding failed to withstand scrutiny. The Trump EPA now finds that even if the United States eliminated all greenhouse gas emissions from every vehicle on the road, there would be no material impact on global climate change — the core assumption used in 2009 to justify these regulations.
Let that sink in: Trillions of dollars in unnecessary costs were imposed on American families. Americans lost freedoms that should never have been taken away. The Trump EPA creates policy rooted in reality, not ideology.
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This was not a decision we made lightly. We conducted a transparent rulemaking process with a 52-day public comment period, four days of virtual public hearings where more than 600 people testified, and roughly 572,000 public comments. We listened, made substantial updates and delivered.
Affordable vehicle ownership is at the heart of the American Dream. It is how families get to work, how small businesses move goods and how millions of Americans in rural communities without public transit access health care, education and opportunity. It remains one of the primary drivers of economic mobility in the United States.
The regulations built on the Endangerment Finding placed new vehicles further out of reach for American families. The Obama and Biden administrations' push toward EV mandates pressured automakers to scale back traditional gasoline and diesel trucks and reengineer fleets toward technologies they argue are uneconomic and infeasible. The cost of these climate policies fell hardest on Americans who could least afford it.
President Trump promised to unleash American energy, revive the American auto industry and put the American people first. Today, we delivered on that promise in what we believe is the largest deregulatory action and cost-saving measure for Americans in U.S. history. The era of government-knows-best climate regulation is over. The American Dream is back. Promises made, promises kept.