Ashley Siefert Nunes
WASHINGTON (July 29, 2025)—The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it has authored a proposal seeking to undo the agency’s 2009 foundational scientific finding that global warming pollution endangers public health and the environment. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright joined EPA Administrator Zeldin at the news conference today and announced a DOE “climate science study” alongside remarks that were rife with climate denial talking points and disinformation.
At the same time, the EPA has also announced a repeal of the strongest climate policy ever finalized—standards reducing global warming pollution from cars and trucks. The agency’s proposed reversal of the Endangerment Finding threatens to undermine other vital standards limiting heat-trapping emissions, including from power plants, oil and gas operations, and landfills, and follows the agency’s proposed repeal of the power plant carbon standards announced last month.
Below is a statement by Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
“It’s abundantly clear what’s going on here. The Trump administration refuses to acknowledge robust climate science and is using the kitchen sink approach: making every specious argument it can to avoid complying with the law.
“But getting around the Clean Air Act won’t be easy. The science establishing climate harms to human health was unequivocally clear back in 2009 and more than fifteen years later, the evidence has only accumulated. Communities across the nation are having to cope with deadly heat waves, accelerating sea level rise, worsening wildfires and floods, increased heavy rainfall, and more intense and damaging storms. Burning fossil fuels has made the climate increasingly unstable and dangerous for people. Period.
“The way the administration is seeking to undo the endangerment finding would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous. Their rationales are nonsensical on all fronts and are blatantly aimed at shredding regulations to prop up the fortunes of the polluting fossil fuel industry while the public foots the bill. Administrator Zeldin owes it to the American people to look out for their health and well-being instead of cruelly and gleefully abdicating the EPA’s core mission in favor of polluter handouts.”
Below is a statement by Steven Higashide, director of the Clean Transportation program at UCS.
“The rules safeguarding against vehicle climate pollution that the Trump administration is attempting to scrap are projected to reduce planet-warming emissions by more than 7 billion tons over the next three decades. They’re some of the most powerful tools we have to help limit deadly flooding, wildfires, hurricanes and other harms associated with climate change.
“Decades of vehicle fuel economy and tailpipe emission standards have saved car and truck drivers trillions of dollars at the pump, reduced our collective exposure to toxic air pollution, and avoided the extraction and burning of billions of barrels of oil. Such standards encourage technological innovation and have led to more efficient vehicles that have brought significant health, environmental and economic benefits to people across the United States.
“Despite this immense progress, the transportation sector continues to release more heat-trapping emissions than any other in the U.S. economy while communities near roadways and freight hubs are harmed by transportation pollution. This is the time to accelerate emissions reductions, and the standards being targeted are needed to do that. Instead, the White House is seeking to trash these vital protections, using the flimsiest and most self-serving of rationales and showing yet again it’s willing to sacrifice public protections for polluters’ gain.”