In a move that sent shockwaves through the environmental community, the Trump administration has revoked the Endangerment Finding, a landmark 2009 EPA determination that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to public health and welfare. What this really means is that the Trump administration has just stripped the federal government of its most powerful tool to regulate carbon pollution and combat climate change.

A Dramatic Rollback of Climate Regulations

President Trump gleefully took a victory lap, calling the repeal "the single largest deregulatory action in American history" and claiming it would save the country $1.3 trillion in "crushing regulations." But environmental advocates paint a darker picture, warning that this move will leave Americans "less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change" while gifting "billionaire polluters" at the expense of public wellbeing.

The Endangerment Finding was the legal foundation for a slew of EPA regulations, from vehicle emission standards to limits on power plant emissions. As Reuters reports, the Trump administration is also moving to repeal those related rules, essentially hamstringing the federal government's ability to address the climate crisis.

Undermining Science and Ignoring Risks

This decision flies in the face of scientific consensus on the dangers of climate change. As The Guardian noted, former Secretary of State John Kerry called the move "un-American" and warned it "invites enormous damage to people and property around the world." The bigger picture here is that the Trump administration is once again prioritizing the interests of the fossil fuel industry over the wellbeing of the American people and the health of the planet.

While this rollback may score political points with the President's base, it poses a serious threat to the future. By eliminating the legal foundation for climate regulations, the Trump team is gambling that the Supreme Court will let them completely avoid addressing the nation's top source of greenhouse gas emissions. But as the impacts of climate change grow more severe, this short-sighted victory may come back to haunt the administration and the country as a whole.