An Environmental Protection Agency proposal to rescind its previous scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions harm human health and the environment contradicts the prevailing science on the issue and its own mission, two former federal officials said Friday.
The EPA imminently is expected to repeal the so-called “endangerment finding,” which dates back to 2009 and established the dangers of greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane. It subsequently charged the federal government with regulating them, said Joe Goffman, a former assistant administrator in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation during the Biden administration.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March that the agency would work to erase that legal underpinning for emissions regulations, decrying the finding as the “holy grail of the climate change religion.” In a Friday call with media members, Goffman said he expected the agency not only would rescind the finding that vehicle emissions are harmful, but also anticipated the agency would end all emissions standards for passenger cars and light- and heavy-duty trucks.
Goffman said rescinding the endangerment finding “all but abandons the public health mission” of the EPA.
“There is a vast literature created by the EPA itself as well as peer-reviewed experts who have made the case again and again and again and again, the net benefits of air pollution regulation and climate regulation are enormous,” Goffman said.
In a statement provided to Inside Climate News, the EPA said it was preparing a proposal.
“On Monday, June 30, 2025, EPA sent over its ‘Reconsideration of 2009 Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards’ proposal to the Office of Management and Budget, which was originally announced on March 12, 2025,” the statement says. “The proposal will be published for public notice and comment once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the Administrator.”
There is overwhelming scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions, primarily those associated with the burning of fossil fuels, are warming the global climate and leading to more extreme events such as the wildfires that engulfed Los Angeles this winter and Hurricane Helene, which carved out a vast swath of destruction from southwest Florida to western North Carolina last September.
The starkest example of how the warming climate is harming human health is hotter temperatures, said John Balbus, the former deputy assistant secretary for climate change and health equity at the Department of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration, who also participated in the Friday call. Warmer air holds more moisture, leading to events such as this summer’s flash floods in Texas. Hotter temperatures also can fuel hurricanes and dry out plant material that fuels wildfires.
“The science is very strong, but you only have to open your eyes to what has been going on in the U.S. in the past 10 years to know that the climate has changed,” Balbus said.
“Any move to rescind the endangerment finding is not just a denial of the science,” he added. “It’s also a denial of common sense.”
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Amy Green covers the environment and climate change from Orlando, Florida. She is a mid-career journalist and author whose extensive reporting on the Everglades is featured in the book MOVING WATER, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, and podcast DRAINED, available wherever you get your podcasts. Amy’s work has been recognized with many awards, including a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award and Public Media Journalists Association award.
