Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse announced a probe on Tuesday into the role that industry groups and other organizations played in the proposed roll back of the federal government’s key “endangerment finding” for greenhouse gases.
The endangerment finding, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009, has served as the basis for the agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, power plants and oil and gas operations for more than a decade. But in July, the Trump administration announced its intention to revoke that finding.
In a statement announcing the proposal, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency had heard from “stakeholders” that “EPA’s [greenhouse gas emissions] standards themselves, not carbon dioxide … was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods.”
Whitehouse, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a longtime climate hawk, pushed against those claims on Tuesday and questioned whether fossil fuel interests had unduly influenced the administration’s decision.
“I am concerned about the role that fossil fuel companies, certain manufacturers, trade associations, polluter-backed groups and others with much to benefit from the repeal of the endangerment finding … played in drafting, preparing, promoting, and lobbying on the proposal,” Whitehouse wrote in his requests for documents.
The senator sent records requests to 24 companies and organizations, including oil and gas trade association the American Petroleum Institute (API), conservative and libertarian organizations like the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and automotive manufacturers.
The letters set a deadline of Sept. 30 for those groups to provide internal and external communications with executive branch officials, the Trump campaign, Trump’s presidential transition team and other relevant parties.
However, the request is not enforceable and there is no legal requirement for those groups to provide the requested documents.
Whitehouse wrote that if the repeal of the endangerment finding is approved, “it would hand massive benefits to polluting industry actors and their enablers, allowing them to reap billions in profit while shifting the burdens of climate disasters onto the American families, businesses, and taxpayers.”
Inside Climate News has separately filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the EPA requesting copies of all communications between the agency and representatives, employees or lobbyists for some of the groups listed in Whitehouse’s letter, including the American Petroleum Institute.
A source within the oil and gas industry denied that API was involved in “developing or drafting” the EPA’s proposal to rescind the endangerment finding.
And in an emailed statement, a spokesperson for API said that “although we believe that the federal government has a role to play in regulating greenhouse gases—including methane—the previous administration’s unlawful and unpopular EV mandates were a clear abuse of the federal government’s authority.
“As the administration begins this process, we look forward to working with them in the months ahead to finalize a smart and effective regulatory approach,” the statement said.
Still, fossil fuel interests haven’t shied away from engaging with the Trump administration this year to achieve their priorities.
In July, the EPA published a rule extending deadlines for companies working with oil and natural gas to limit emissions of methane and other harmful pollutants. A separate source within the industry confirmed to Inside Climate News that industry leaders had requested that extension, despite the fact that many parties were already meeting the requirements of that emissions rule.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has also been criticized as a handout to the fossil fuel industry, as it increases lease sales for drilling and mandates that millions of acres of federal lands be made available for mining, while accelerating the phaseout of tax credits for wind and solar development.
Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, told CNBC at the time that the bill “includes almost all of our priorities.”
The oil and gas industry also spent about $71 million lobbying the federal government in the first and second quarters of 2025. That puts the industry slightly behind its pace from 2024.
However, watchdog organizations told Inside Climate News that the lack of increased spending on lobbying by the industry amid major policy wins actually underscores its existing influence, and cited the number of industry insiders placed into key government positions and Trump’s already-friendly attitude toward fossil fuels.
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Aidan Hughes
Roy W. Howard Fellow
Aidan Hughes is a reporter at Inside Climate News covering Congress and the Trump administration. Previously a data fellow at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, he worked on an IRE Award-winning series investigating privately sponsored congressional travel. He also builds tools that help other journalists cover underreported forms of political influence. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland.
