Trump EPA ends regulation of greenhouse gases connected to climate change
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Trump EPA rescinds Endangerment Finding, halting greenhouse-gas rules enforcement.
- Administration predicts savings; opponents foresee higher fuel and health costs.
- Environmental groups say they will sue to keep the decision from taking effect.
The Trump administration’s EPA has rescinded the federal government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, halting the enforcement of rules meant to slow air pollution that causes climate change.
In a live-streamed press conference at the White House Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, called the Obama-era finding that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and welfare “a scam.”
Rescinding the finding — which was based on scientific study about the accumulation and effect of greenhouse gases now accepted by mainstream science — would save taxpayers $1.3 trillion, Trump and Zeldin said, though they didn’t specify how or over what period of time. They said eliminating greenhouse-gas emission standards on cars would drop the price of a new vehicle by $2,400.
The change also will affect emissions from power plants.
“The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans,” Zeldin said in a press release. “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 administration had said in 2025 it planned to make the move. Environmental groups said they would sue in response.
What EPA rules mean in North Carolina
Mica Crouse, a spokeswoman for the Environmental Defense Fund, said that group’s research shows repealing the Endangerment Finding actually will result in higher costs for families.
”New analysis from Environmental Defense Fund shows repealing the Endangerment Finding and U.S. clean vehicle standards will saddle North Carolina families with an estimated $70 billion in added fuel costs and $7 billion in health costs, worsening air pollution and increasing asthma attacks and premature deaths statewide,” Crouse said. “Vehicles are one of the largest pollution sources in North Carolina, and this rollback shifts costs from polluters to everyday drivers.”
Nationally, Crouse said, the EDF estimates that Americans will end up paying more at the gas pump as manufacturers roll back measures that make vehicles run more efficiently.
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality says the largest source of greenhouse gases in the state are the generation and use of electricity, followed by transportation; the burning of fossil fuels to generate heat or electricity in homes, industries or commercial operations; agriculture; waste management; and other processes.
While Trump said dropping the Endangerment Finding would result in a reinvigoration of the U.S. auto-making industry, the national, nonpartisan clean-energy business group E2 also said the EPA decision would increase costs for consumers.
Eliminating clean-vehicle standards is “a blow to both our economy and our environment,” Sandra Purohit, E2’s federal advocacy director said in a release.
“This decision will drive up costs for businesses and consumers and weaken our economy. It upends nearly two decades of commonsense policy. It injects huge uncertainty into the marketplace. It discourages capital investment and innovation in the auto industry. And it ignores the economic costs of extreme weather that’s only made worse by rising GHG pollution — including disaster clean-up, higher insurance premiums, lost productivity, and supply chain disruption.”
Clean-energy advocates in North Carolina also have said that dropping the Endangerment Finding is likely to result in the reversal of a generally positive trend in recent years of working to reduce carbon emissions from power plants in the state. While Duke Energy had been working with lawmakers and regulators to try to reach carbon neutrality, the utility was allowed last year to delay its emission-reduction goals and now says it wants to keep coal-fired power plants online past dates they were once planned to be phased out.
In its earnings report released this week, Duke Energy said it made profits of $4.9 billion in 2025 and is on track to see healthy returns for shareholders for the next two years. The utility has a $103 billion capital plan through 2030 that includes proposals for a natural-gas-powered plant in Davidson County, a new nuclear plant at Belews Creek, grid upgrades and some solar installations. The company has dropped wind power from its immediate plans, in keeping with Trump’s pronouncements that he would like to kill all new wind power projects.
Trump has championed the restart of the American coal industry, saying it’s necessary to ensure the country has plenty of reliable, affordable energy.
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This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Trump EPA ends regulation of greenhouse gases connected to climate change."
