Energy

Trump Admin Reportedly On Precipice Of Axing Climate Agenda Cornerstone

(Screen Capture/CSPAN)

The Trump administration is planning to repeal this week an Obama-era and cornerstone climate regulation, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The 2009 Endangerment Finding allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gasses — including carbon dioxide — under the Clean Air Act. Trump administration officials, speaking with anonymity, told WSJ that the final rule is set to be made public this week, and will be centered on repealing emissions standards for motor vehicles.

The final rule would also reportedly repeal related compliance programs and would pave the way for repealing power plant emissions standards, though it does not directly target them, according to the WSJ. The Endangerment Finding has been used by Democrats for years to impose harsh climate regulations and repealing it would be a win for consumer choice and affordability, energy policy experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“President Trump was elected to put families first, and by ending this disastrous rule that drives up prices and punishes American consumers, he’s making good on this promise – this is truly a generational game changer,” said Power The Future Founder and Executive Director Daniel Turner. “For more than a decade, the extreme eco-left relied on the endangerment finding as the artillery in their ceaseless war on American energy; today marks a major win for the good guys. In the coming years, America is going to need more power to fuel growth, rebuild manufacturing, and win the battle for artificial intelligence. The Trump Administration’s bold decision clears the way for the power plants and energy production our country needs to compete and win in the 21st century.”

President Donald Trump directed the EPA to reconsider the Endangerment Finding on his first day back in the Oval Office, and the agency announced its proposal to roll back the rule in July 2025.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin previously referred to rolling back the Endangerment Finding as “the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.”

David Blackmon, an oil and gas industry expert, wrote on X that the administration preparing to dismantle the “infamous” finding is a boon for consumers and energy costs.

“This finding has shoved us from reliable, affordable fossil fuels toward flaky renewables, jacking up energy costs and risking grid blackouts for everyday Americans,” Blackmon wrote. “Rescinding it? That’s liberation for our economy, unleashing market-driven innovation without bureaucratic shackles.”

The Trump administration is planning to make other announcements this week centered around targeting high energy costs, according to WSJ, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright set to announce an executive order directing the Department of War to buy electricity from coal plants. Another coming announcement will award funding for coal plants across the country, according to WSJ.

The EPA argued that the Endangerment Finding has been used to justify over $1 trillion in regulations, including the Biden-era de-facto electric vehicle (EV) mandate that the Trump administration terminated after Congress passed two resolutions.

Michael Chamberlain, director of the government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust, told the DCNF that “the endangerment finding implemented by the Obama administration will likely go down in history as a textbook example of government overreach.”

“For such a monumental action, that gave the federal government virtually unprecedented power to intrude on the lives of its citizens, evidence we have seen shows that the officials responsible for enacting it acted with a pre-determined motive before all the data had been considered,” Chamberlain said. “The power and the politics were placed firmly ahead of the science, making the finding both legally suspect and scientifically fraught.”