Donald Trump has rescinded the Obama-era ruling that greenhouse gases are harmful to health, a foundation for regulations controlling gases that cause global warming, with legal battles expected to last for years.
On Thursday, 12 Feb 2026 GMT+7, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the repeal of a key scientific finding from Barack Obama's administration that identified greenhouse gases as harmful to health, which underpinned all federal actions regulating global warming gases.
The “endangerment finding,” first issued in 2009, classified six greenhouse gases as harmful to human health under the Clean Air Act.
This law has been the basis for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to limit climate-warming pollution from the oil and gas industries, power plants, and vehicles since the Obama administration, serving as the federal government's most powerful tool to address climate pollution and the U.S.'s role in the global crisis.
“We are officially ending what is called the ‘endangerment finding,’” Donald Trump said, calling the finding a “disaster” and emphasizing that repealing these regulations “has nothing to do with public health.”
“It was all a hoax, a big hoax,” Trump said on Thursday. “This was a theft of the country by Obama and Biden.”
Additionally, the Trump administration plans to repeal regulations controlling greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, as those rules were based on the endangerment finding.
Under former President Joe Biden, the EPA sought to tighten those standards to encourage automakers to produce more hybrid and electric vehicles with greater fuel efficiency, but Trump reversed those efforts after returning to the presidency last year.
Repealing the finding will make it easier for the government to withdraw other regulations that reduce climate pollution from power plants and oil and gas operations, even though separate regulatory processes are required to repeal those rules.
According to CNN, the Trump administration's rationale for revoking the finding, as outlined in the EPA's press release, relies more on legal arguments rather than outright rejection of scientific data.
The agency argues that the Obama and Biden administrations overstepped legal authority by using the Clean Air Act to regulate climate pollution.
This move contrasts with last summer when the EPA proposed revoking the finding based on hastily conducted research, where only five climate skeptics questioned the severity of climate impacts such as wildfires, extreme heat, and intensified storms.
Instead of reaffirming its previous stance on Thursday, the Trump-era EPA stated in its press release that the Clean Air Act “does not provide legal authority to the EPA” to set vehicle emission standards “including for the purpose of addressing global climate change,” thus finding no lawful basis for the endangerment finding and related regulations.
The Trump administration's announcement to revoke the finding will be subject to judicial review, which could take years and likely result in prolonged legal battles potentially reaching the Supreme Court.
Jeff Holmstead, an energy attorney at Bracewell and former senior EPA official under President George W. Bush, warned that if the revocation is upheld in court, the EPA would lose its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the future.
Lee Seldin, an EPA executive appointed by Trump, said the EPA lacks authority to regulate certain pollution types unless Congress explicitly passes legislation granting such power.
“If Congress doesn’t authorize it, EPA shouldn’t do it,” Seldin said on Thursday. “If Congress wants EPA to strictly regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, it can clearly legislate that.”
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Source:CNN