What They Are Saying: Leaders and Americans Across the Country Applaud the Single Largest Act of Deregulation in U.S. History
- February 13, 2026
EPA
WASHINGTON – On Thursday, February 12, 2026, alongside President Trump in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. In this final rule, EPA is saving American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion with the elimination of the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding and all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond. EPA’s historic move restores consumer choice, makes vehicles affordable for American families, and decreases the cost of living on all products by lowering the cost of trucks. The agency’s action returns commonsense to rulemaking and follows the Clean Air Act as Congress intended.
Here’s what people are saying:
Protect the Public’s Trust Director Michael Chamberlain: “The Endangerment Finding was an unprecedented power grab from the start when the Obama EPA rushed it through to achieve a bureaucratic coup regardless of the data, facts, or traditional process. We recently obtained records that show EPA leadership under the Obama administration set artificial deadlines, attempted to steamroll procedural niceties, and coordinated with outside activist organizations. For such a monumental decision that gave the federal government virtually unprecedented power to intrude on the lives of its citizens, it’s apparent these officials acted with a pre-determined motive before all the data had been considered. Power and politics were placed firmly ahead of the science.”