Alongside President Trump in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.
In this final rule, EPA is saving American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion, eliminating both the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding and all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond.
The action also eliminates all off-cycle credits, including for the almost universally hated start-stop feature. EPA’s historic move restores consumer choice, makes more affordable vehicles available for American families, and decreases the cost of living on all products by lowering the cost of trucks. This major deregulatory process included substantial public input and robust analysis of the law following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and West Virginia v. EPA.
“The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans,” said Administrator Zeldin. “Referred to by some as the ‘Holy Grail’ of the ‘climate change religion,’ the Endangerment Finding is now eliminated. The Trump EPA is strictly following the letter of the law, returning commonsense to policy, delivering consumer choice to Americans and advancing the American Dream. As EPA Administrator, I am proud to deliver the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history on behalf of American taxpayers and consumers. As an added bonus, the off-cycle credit for the almost universally despised start-stop feature on vehicles has been removed.”
The 2009 Endangerment Finding was used to justify trillions of dollars in regulations, including the Obama and Biden Administrations’ illegal push towards Electric Vehicle (EV) mandates and compliance requirements, while simultaneously driving up the cost of vehicles for American families and small businesses— limiting economic mobility and the American Dream. The final rule will save Americans over $1.3 trillion by removing the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal GHG emission standards for motor vehicles, and repeals associated compliance programs, credit provisions, and reporting obligations that exist solely to support the vehicle GHG regulatory regime.
Americans will have certainty, flexibility and regulatory relief, allowing companies to plan appropriately, and empowering American families.
In finalizing this rule, EPA carefully considered and reevaluated the legal foundation of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and the text of the Clean Air Act (CAA) in light of subsequent legal developments and court decisions. The agency concludes that Section 202(a) of the CAA does not provide statutory authority for EPA to prescribe motor vehicle and engine emission standards in the manner previously utilized, including for the purpose of addressing global climate change, and therefore has no legal basis for the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations.
EPA firmly believes the 2009 Endangerment Finding made by the Obama Administration exceeded the agency’s authority to combat “air pollution” that harms public health and welfare, and that a policy decision of this magnitude, which carries sweeping economic and policy consequences, lies solely with Congress. Unlike our predecessors, the Trump EPA is committed to following the law exactly as it is written and as Congress intended—not as others might wish it to be.
The Endangerment Finding was a legal prerequisite used by the Obama and Biden Administrations to regulate GHG emissions. In the 16 years since the Endangerment Finding, many of the predictions and assumptions used to justify the rule did not materialize. Using the same types of models utilized by the previous administrations and climate change zealots, EPA now finds that even if the U.S. were to eliminate all GHG emissions from all vehicles, there would be no material impact on global climate indicators through 2100. Therefore, maintaining GHG emission standards is not necessary for EPA to fulfill its core mission of protecting human health and the environment, but regardless, is not within the authority Congress entrusted to EPA.
The current action is only related to GHG emissions and does not affect regulations that combat criteria pollutants and air toxics. The Trump EPA’s final rule dismantles the tactics and legal fictions used by the Obama and Biden Administrations to backdoor their ideological agendas on the American people.
The Endangerment Finding was a legal prerequisite used by the Obama and Biden Administrations to regulate GHG emissions. In the 16 years since the Endangerment Finding, many of the predictions and assumptions used to justify the rule did not materialize.
Affordable vehicle ownership is essential to the American Dream and a primary driver of economic mobility out of poverty in the United States. The Endangerment Finding led to vehicle and engine regulations with an aggregate cost of more than $1 trillion and played a significant role in EPA’s justification of regulations of other sources beyond cars and trucks, resulting in additional costly burdens on American families and businesses. Americans rely on vehicles to reach jobs, education, health care, and essential services. This is especially true in rural areas and regions without robust public transit.
The costs imposed by these climate policies have placed new cars out of reach for many American families and harmed Americans’ ability to climb out of poverty or reach essential services. The Trump EPA is expected to deliver Americans over $1.3 trillion in cost savings, which includes reduced costs for new vehicles and avoided costs of purchasing equipment related to EVs. This action will result in an average cost savings of over $2,400 per vehicle.
By lowering vehicle and regulatory compliance costs, EPA is improving affordability and expanding consumer choice and ultimately advancing the American Dream by making it easier to reach jobs, grow small businesses, and participate fully in the transportation and logistics systems that power the U.S. economy.
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The Endangerment Finding enabled the Obama and Biden Administrations’ illegal push toward EV mandates. These mandates pressure the vehicle industry to phase down production of various models of traditional gasoline and diesel trucks and to reengineer their fleets towards uneconomic and infeasible electric technologies. The Obama and Biden Administrations also used the Endangerment Finding to support off-cycle credits to forcibly incentivize automakers into adopting unpopular systems, undermining consumer choice.
An off-cycle credit is a government-created concept that let auto manufacturers meet federal GHG standards on paper, by adding features like the almost universally hated start-stop feature, resulting in questionable emission reductions. Automakers should not be forced to adopt or rewarded for technologies that are merely a climate participation trophy with no material benefit. The Trump EPA chooses consumer choice over posturing to climate change zealots every time.
The announcement ends all off-cycle credits, eliminates EPA incentives for the start-stop button, and restores consumer choice. Americans will be able to buy the car they want, including newer, more affordable cars with the most up to date safety standards and that emit fewer criteria and hazardous air pollutants.
Understanding the importance of this action, EPA conducted a transparent and inclusive rulemaking process. The agency held an extended 52-day public comment period, which included four days of virtual public hearings where more than 600 individuals testified.
EPA received about 572,000 public comments on the proposed rule and made substantial updates to the final rule in response to comments. A summary of public input and EPA’s responses to all comments can be found in the final rule preamble and accompanying documents, and all comments received, including entries summarizing several hundred mass-mailer campaigns, are available in the rulemaking docket.
