at 2009 finding declared that CO₂ and other greenhouse gases “endanger public health and welfare,” providing the statutory foundation for decades of climate-related regulatory actions from vehicle emissions standards to power plant rules. The White House has characterized this reversal as the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history, expected to save consumers and industry trillions by eliminating what it views as overly burdensome regulations tied to the finding’s legal authority.
Supporters of the move see it as a long-overdue correction of what they consider a scientifically and legally flimsy basis for climate regulation, arguing that CO₂ is not a pollutant in the traditional sense and that the Clean Air Act was never intended to be applied in this way. Opponents, including environmental groups and many scientists, have blasted the repeal as an attack on settled law and an abandonment of federal responsibility to address climate-related harms, and they are already lining up to challenge the action in court. Regardless of one’s stance on climate science, today’s action represents a historic shift in the role of the federal government in regulating greenhouse gases and will likely spark years of litigation over the EPA’s authority and the underlying science.