INFORM May 2026

30 INFORM MAY 2026, VOL. 37, NO. 5

US RESCINDS FINDING THAT ESTABLISHED POLICY ON GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Regulatory Review features updates on regulatory matters concerning oils- and fats-related industries.

Rebecca Guenard

EPA “is actively working to deliver a historic action for the American people.” LEGAL CHALLENGES Legal challenges are certain for any action that effectively would repeal those regulations, with environmental groups describing the shift as an attack on federal efforts to address climate change. “Repealing the Endangerment Finding endangers all of us. People everywhere will face more pollution, higher costs, and thousands of avoidable deaths,” said Peter Zalzal in a press release. Zalzal is distinguished counsel and associate vice president of clean air strategies at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “The Trump EPA’s action tramples mountains of scientific evidence, ignores the law, and is fundamentally at odds with EPA’s core responsibility to protect us from dangerous pollution. We are challenging this action in court.” Six days after the Trump administration rescinded the finding a coalition of health and environmental groups, including the EDF, filed suit.

In February, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revoked a central scientific finding underpinning greenhouse gas emissions regulation and the fight against climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule rescinding a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding went into effect on April 20, 2026. That Obama-era policy determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The endangerment finding made it legal for nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for emissions from motor vehicles, power plants and other sources of greenhouse gases. It required the EPA to determine if vehicle emissions endangered public welfare, such as extreme flooding and heat waves or catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters made more severe as a result of climate change. EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch said the Obama era rule was “one of the most damaging decisions in modern history” and said

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that planet-warming greenhouse gases, caused by burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Since the high court’s decision, in a case known as Massachusetts v. EPA , courts have uniformly rejected legal challenges to the endangerment finding. Last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine reassessed the science associated with the 2009 finding and concluded it was “accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence.” Much of the understanding of climate change that was uncertain or tentative in 2009 is now resolved, the NAS panel of scientists said in a September report. “The evidence for current and future harm to human health and welfare created by human-caused greenhouse gases is beyond scientific dispute,” the panel said.

Rebecca Guenard is the editor-in-chief of INFORM magazine, she can be contacted at rebecca.guenard@aocs.org.