Trump Revokes Obama-Era Greenhouse Gas Finding In "Largest Deregulatory Action" In U.S. History
Update (Thursday Afternoon):
President Trump told reporters that his administration has rescinded the 2009 Obama-era "Endangerment Finding," a determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare, which he said has been used by the radical left to justify $1.3 trillion in regulatory costs that have hurt American households and sent consumer prices soaring, especially for automobiles.
"The single largest deregulatory action in American history. That's a big statement, in American history and I think we can add the words by far," Trump told reporters.
The president said, "Under this process just completed by EPA, we are officially terminating [the] so-called endangerment finding—a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers. Prices went up incredibly, for a worse product."
"This action will eliminate over 1.3 trillion dollars of regulatory costs that [will] help bring car prices tumbling down dramatically. You're going to get a better car, you're gonna get a car that starts easier, a car that works better. [Obama's] EPA designated fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and other things that actually make factories rock and roll, and other things drive very nicely," he noted.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just ABOLISHED Obama’s Hussein-era greenhouse gas regulations on power plants and cars, saving Americans $1.3 TRILLION!
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) February 12, 2026
The largest deregulation in AMERICAN HISTORY, by far.
The Obama “endangerment finding” that branded fossil fuels a health threat?… pic.twitter.com/SU1jTIcmqP
The announcement was made with EPA head Lee Zeldin, and was framed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as a historic deregulatory move.
NEW: The Trump Administration is revoking the 2009 Obama-era "Endangerment Finding" — the basis that Radical Left activists used to justify over $1.3T in crushing regulations on American families and businesses.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 12, 2026
This is the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. pic.twitter.com/LpszJSeBjo
Earlier this week, Zeldin told the Wall Street Journal that "this amounts to the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States."
The Democratic Party's massive climate regulations helped fuel inflation and led to a degrowth trend in the US economy, while giving China room to catch up. That is alarming, and it raises a question: were these de-growth climate regulations intentional?
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is about to pull the rug from underneath climate regulation...
The EPA, under Lee Zeldin, plans to revoke the 2009 "endangerment finding", an Obama-era determination that six greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations” and that has anchored federal climate regulation under the Clean Air Act, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.
Bloomberg reported that the repeal could be announced as soon as Wednesday, citing an unnamed source.
Repealing the Obama-era climate finding would strip away the legal foundation for federal greenhouse gas regulation, which has been nothing more than toxic and degrowth for the economy, while China and India expanded coal-fired generation to power manufacturing hubs.
"This amounts to the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States," EPA head Zeldin said in an interview.
Officials say it does not directly apply to emissions rules for oil-and-gas power plants and other stationary sources, but repealing the finding could make it easier to challenge or roll back those regulations at a later date.
The rollback would be a major win for the economy, which has been burdened by years of Democrats' "climate crisis" policies, which have epically backfired as electricity rates have soared amid terrible bets on unreliable solar and wind generation and the retirement of fossil-fuel plants.
This has all collided with grid strain in the data center era, triggering a power bill crisis across Maryland and other Mid-Atlantic states.
Also, this brutally cold winter has only underscored one very important point for 'team fossil fuels': coal and natural gas have helped keep the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast power grids from collapsing in recent weeks.
Related:
Since taking office, President Trump has pursued deregulation and pushed for reliable fossil fuels, telling supporters during the campaign trail, "drill, baby, drill." The goal, the president has stated over and over, is to reverse the worst inflation storm in a generation, which he blames on Democrats and their nation-killing green agenda.
On President Trump's first day of office last year, he signed an executive order directing the EPA to submit an assessment on the endangerment finding. Then by July, he received the proposal to rescind the finding.
Now, the rollback that would equal upwards of $1 trillion in cuts is set to be announced this week, along with several other energy- and climate-related announcements that will help drive down the cost of living.
"More energy drives human flourishing," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in an interview. "Energy abundance is the thing that we have to focus on, not regulating certain forms of energy out."
The U.S. economy has spent two decades under "climate crisis" regulations, and it has backfired spectacularly. Time to get back to basics.
