The History of the Endangerment Finding

The Trump Administration repealed the endangerment finding on Thursday, marking its most aggressive climate rollback to date. The landmark legal framework allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Revoking the finding now gives the administration authority to erase greenhouse gas pollution limits from cars, power plants, and industries.

Repealing the rule has been a top priority for the Trump administration. On the first day of his second term, President [Donald] Trump signed an executive order directing the EPA to submit a report on "the legality and continuing applicability" of the endangerment finding. On Thursday, he proudly called the termination, "the single largest deregulatory action in American history."

The decision is a blow to decades of environmental progress in the United States. "It's the foundation on which all of the other regulations rest," said Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, of the endangerment finding. "It is the authorization to regulate greenhouse gasses, and without that authorization the legal basis for regulating emissions from automobiles and power plants, is fuzzy at best and potentially non existent."

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