Today, the Environmental Protection Agency formally rescinded the 2009 endangerment finding on greenhouse gases. This finding represented the EPA’s scientific and legal determination that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare and has been the cornerstone of nearly every major U.S. climate policy for more than a decade. It provided the legal basis for emissions standards on vehicles, limits on industrial pollution, and other protections designed to slow climate change and safeguard human health. 

Without this foundational finding, the federal government no longer has a clear mandate to enforce limits on emissions from cars, trucks, power plants, and industrial sources. Regulation retreats into uncertainty, and protections that took years to build can be rolled back. Critics warn this will accelerate pollution, heighten public health risks, and expose current and future generations to even greater harm.