FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2026
CONTACT:
Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
Trump EPA Abandons Decades of Science, Walks Away from Climate Action
“By discarding the Endangerment Finding and slashing clean car emission standards, the Trump EPA is surrendering its responsibility, turning its back on families and communities already facing the highest pollution and health risks, and dismantling decades of science and progress.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an unprecedented and dangerous move, the Trump Administration will repeal the Endangerment Finding, abandoning decades of science and walking away from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s own authority to regulate climate pollution from greenhouse gases that endanger human health.
At the same time, EPA will propose to eliminate federal clean car standards for greenhouse gases, a rollback that would raise costs for drivers and worsen pollution — a direct consequence of abandoning the Endangerment Finding.
“Communities across the country will bear the brunt of this decision—through dirtier air, higher health costs, and increased climate harm,” said Michelle Roos, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Network. “By discarding the Endangerment Finding and slashing clean car emission standards, the Trump EPA is surrendering its responsibility, turning its back on families and communities already facing the highest pollution and health risks, and dismantling decades of science and progress.”
“This move is a fundamental betrayal of EPA’s responsibility to protect human health. It is legally indefensible, morally bankrupt, and completely untethered from the scientific record,” said Joseph Goffman, former Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “The Endangerment Finding was built on decades of peer-reviewed science and a clear legal mandate under the Clean Air Act, and that foundation has only grown stronger. Abandoning it—along with clean car standards that reduce harmful pollution and save families money—doesn’t change the facts. It is abhorrent that the Trump EPA has decided to shift the real and growing costs of climate pollution back onto the public.”
The Endangerment Finding process began under the Bush Administrations, when EPA Administrator Steven Johnson, a scientist, told President Bush that the finding was necessary because greenhouse gas pollution endangers public health. In the decades since, EPA has never formally moved to reverse the Endangerment Finding, nor is there any scientific basis for doing so now. Repealing it undermines EPA’s Clean Air Act responsibilities for controlling greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, power plants, and other major sources, reversing decades of progress on clean air and climate protections.
The rollback of the Endangerment Finding – and the associated removal of the greenhouse gas vehicle emissions standards – will result in thousands of additional premature deaths, millions of asthma attacks, billions of dollars in lost health benefits, higher gasoline prices, and lost jobs in the automotive industry over the coming decades.
EPN first pushed back against the repeals when they were proposed in July as a willful abandonment of the scientific, legal, and moral foundations of environmental protection, and led efforts to provide public testimony and submit formal comments alongside scientists, health experts, and community advocates.
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