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First modification: 02/19/2026 - 01:47

President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revoked the so-called danger finding, which determined that six greenhouse gases threatened the health of generations in the country. That determination was fundamental for different laws that regulate vehicle pollution.

Donald Trump's Administration revoked the scientific basis that allowed much of the fight against the climate crisis in the country. The so-called “hazard finding” was established in 2009 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

After an investigation of more than 200 pages, he concluded that the concentration of six greenhouse gases were a threat to “the public health and well-being of current and future generations.” Those six gases were the widely known carbon dioxide and methane. They also included nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

In addition, the environmental authority ruled that these gases caused by new vehicles and their engines also threatened health and well-being due to the pollution they caused, a definition that served to require the United States automotive industry to produce cleaner cars and that became the basis of the EPA to strengthen the Clean Air Act.

But now, the same agency in the era of the Trump Administration overturns the dangerous finding and the president alleges that its scientific basis was false. "In 2009, Barack Hussein Obama and his Environmental Protection Agency designated fossil fuels like oil, gas, and other elements that keep factories running, and functioning perfectly, as a threat to human health and well-being, known as the endangerment finding. That finding lacked factual basis, legal basis, and no legal basis. On the contrary, over generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty. all over the world,” declared the president. Trump adds that the discovery of danger "was a scam, a giant scam."

Donald Trump's attempts to reverse climate actions

The origin of the decision began from the first day that the Republican returned to the White House. On January 20, 2025, he signed an executive order directing the EPA to study the hazard finding. In July of that year, the agency concluded that that 2009 rationale did not give it legal authority to control vehicle emissions. Then, the Department of Energy published a report in which it determined that reducing CO2 does more harm than good.

The statement goes against all the scientific findings of recent decades, such as the studies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which prove how human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, have further warmed the planet and put the health of humans and ecosystems at risk.

"Those arguments are not true. The Trump Administration has tried several times to push this agenda that the finding of danger has nothing to do with public health, that it will not endanger our lives, but all of that is false. In reality, it was the EPA itself that previously ruled that this scientific finding of climate pollution harms human health. So now they retract it only to allow the polluters to continue polluting," Liz Hurtado, senior manager of Moms Clean Air Force, an organization that fights, told France 24 en Español. against air pollution to protect the health of children in the United States. This NGO is part of a larger conglomerate called the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). For Hurtado, the revocation of the danger finding is only “so that the polluters make more money.”

Beyond the science, Trump maintains that eliminating the hazard finding will allow automakers to save up to $2,400 per car by not having to meet environmental requirements.

But the other side of the coin is the cost that climate disasters will cause from a more polluted planet. The Climate Central organization estimates that weather events in the United States in 2025 left $115 billion in damage. That is the third highest value on record, after 2023 and 2024. The Los Angeles wildfires alone left more than $61 billion in damage.

For this reason, Liz Hurtado considers that the reversal of the danger finding will leave million-dollar losses and incalculable damage to health. "We're going to experience more air pollution, which will cause all kinds of respiratory illnesses like asthma. We already have very high rates of asthma, especially in children. And children will continue to get sicker, have more asthma attacks and more hospital visits."

Hurtado affirms that there are sufficient scientific grounds to go against Donald Trump's decision and says that the Environmental Defense Fund will appeal. And they are not the only ones. They also announced that the California Governor's Office, under the leadership of Democrat Gavin Newsom, will take the case to court; and the NGO Natural Resources Defense Council. Therefore, the discussion will remain open, although for now the finding of danger is revoked.

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