Trump administration announces repeal of landmark EPA regulation on greenhouse gasses

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The Trump administration will repeal a landmark scientific finding that was the legal basis for federal greenhouse-gas regulation, President Donald Trump said Feb. 12.

Catholic theologians and environmentalists who spoke with OSV News expressed concern about the announcement, arguing the regulation helped prevent ecological damage in accordance with Catholic teaching, such as that laid out in the late Pope Francis’ landmark environmental encyclical “Laudato Si’.”

“Under the process just completed by the EPA, we are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers,” Trump said during comments at the White House Feb. 12.

The president’s announcement was expected, as officials previously indicated they would repeal the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding,” which concluded that six greenhouse gases were a threat to public health. The action would reduce the EPA’s ability to regulate such gasses.

“This will be the largest deregulatory action in American history,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Feb. 10 briefing, arguing the regulation was economically burdensome.

The regulation followed the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which found the EPA can regulate greenhouse gases because they meet the definition of air pollutants.

Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in written comments provided to OSV News, “Today’s action by the EPA to rescind regulatory requirements for greenhouse gases flies in the face of efforts that have been put in place to protect and care for the earth now and for future generations, and we strongly urge the Administration to reconsider this consequential decision.”

“Climate change is one of the greatest environmental threats we face, and the USCCB has long supported efforts aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions both domestically and abroad,” Noguchi said. “Pope Leo XIV recently called on all of us — including governments, institutions, and individuals — to work for policies that promote human dignity and protect our common home.”

Dan Misleh, founder and executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant — a Washington-based nonprofit the U.S. bishops helped to form in support of care for creation — told OSV News that “scientists have been warning that the burning of fossil fuels and the release of other greenhouse gases will warm the planet which, in turn, will impact human health and future generations.”

“We are seeing this harm now and even with the endangerment finding, we are not even close to reducing emissions fast enough to keep climate change from becoming even worse,” he said, adding, “It is always good to review government regulations and refine them as needed. However, there is no doubt that eliminating this finding has the potential to increase emissions and create an even more uncertain future.”

Jame Schaefer, professor emerita at Marquette University and author of “Confronting the Climate Crisis: Catholic Theological Perspectives,” told OSV News that the “virtues of prudence, justice, moderation and fortitude and courage loom large in Catholic theology and social teachings, and motivation for demonstrating these virtues is love for one’s neighbor out of love for God.”

“For Catholics, this is not a time for cowardice, for remaining silent, on this overreaching EPA rule that threatens the health and well-being of people and Earth — our common home,” she argued. “At the very least, we all should be contacting our representatives in the House and Senate with our concerns about this offensive and health-threatening proposal.”

In response to a question from a reporter at the White House about what he would tell Americans concerned about public health in light of the announcement, Trump said, “I tell them, ‘Don’t worry about it, because it has nothing to do with public health,'” he said. “This is all a scam, a giant scam. This was a rip off of the country by (former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden).”

Misleh added, “I really don’t understand why they would put current and future generations at such risk,” arguing repealing the regulation “is akin to eliminating stop lights because you don’t like the color red.”

In a statement, the Ignatian Solidarity Network argued the repeal of the regulation “weakens essential protections for the health of our communities and our common home.”

“Rooted in the Catholic tradition and inspired by the call to care for creation, we affirm that environmental stewardship is inseparable from the pursuit of justice and the protection of human dignity,” the statement said.

The Washington Post’s editorial board argued Feb. 10 that the endangerment finding, “has been used by bureaucrats ever since to dramatically expand the federal government’s power over cars” and praised the repeal of the regulation.

“The U.S. share of global greenhouse gas emissions has been trending downward since the end of World War II, and the 2009 policy change didn’t meaningfully alter its trajectory,” the editorial argued, adding, “These emissions continue to rise because the atmosphere does not care which country the gases come from. The EPA has no power over China and India, which are increasing their emissions even as they talk a big game at climate conferences.”

Others have argued the policy amounted to government overreach, and have called for its repeal or overhaul. In a 2025 statement when the Trump administration indicated it supported repealing the policy, Travis Fisher, Cato’s Director of Energy and Environmental Policy Studies, said, “reversing the endangerment finding would put this issue where it belongs, which is back in Congress, where lawmakers would have to confront the many tradeoffs associated with mitigating carbon dioxide emissions and be accountable to their constituents.”

Misleh argued, “The role of government is to work for the common good of all, not just the wealthy and well-connected. The reversal of this landmark ruling is the opposite of that. As Catholics, we must embrace the warnings that scientists have been shouting at us for decades and do much more, not less, to control greenhouse gas emissions.”

The rollback of the endangerment finding is expected to prompt legal challenges.

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