Last week, the Trump administration announced it was repealing a 2009 determination called

the Endangement Finding.

That finding had been the basis by which the EPA had assumed the right to regulate greenhouse

gases for nearly 20 years.

How will its repeal impact Americans and is the Supreme Court

likely to join this heated debate?

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, February 18,

2026. Here to help us unpack some of the legal,

political, and scientific issues relating to a warming climate is Michael Gerard, one of the foremost

environmental lawyers in the country and a law professor at Columbia University, where he's the

founder and director of the groundbreaking Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

Thank you so much for coming on, Michael.

Good to be with you.

Since taking office in January of 2025, Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator under President Donald

Trump, has either repealed or significantly weakened dozens of Biden-era environmental regulations. Can you please

tell me about some of the most significant ones and what their impact has been? Well, he's weakened the

regulations on clean cars. There had been significant rules that required cars to be more

energy efficient. California had the

ability to adopt stronger standards, which were driving a push toward electric vehicles in

California and other states. So all of that has been wiped out. They've also taken away the

standards for cleaning up power plants. As you know, Zeldon has also canceled many of

the project grants that the EPA has traditionally funded. What are some of the biggest ones?

...