The Trump administration has formally rescinded the EPA’s so-called endangerment finding, the 2009 determination that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to public health. The finding had allowed the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act for nearly two decades. The repeal of the endangerment finding eliminates greenhouse gas emissions standards for U.S. cars and trucks and clears the way for heavy industry to roll back limits on air pollution. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin joined President Trump at the White House Thursday to announce the deregulation.

Lee Zeldin: “The endangerment finding, and the regulations that were based on it, didn’t just regulate emissions. It regulated and targeted the American dream. And now the endangerment finding is hereby eliminated, as well as all greenhouse gas emission standards that followed.”

Environmental and public health groups called the repeal a massive blow to efforts to mitigate the climate crisis worldwide and have promised legal challenges. David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program, said in response, “If left to stand, this action will hamstring the government’s ability to combat the most terrible environmental threat in human history, harming Americans and the world for decades to come.”