epd/dpa/rtr | U.S. President Donald Trump upends the essential foundation for climate protection in the United States. Going forward, his administration will no longer classify greenhouse gas emissions as health-damaging pollutants. Based on the assessment of health damage, numerous climate regulations have been anchored since 2009. Trump announced on Thursday (local time) in Washington that Americans have “fuel for the next 500 to 1,000 years under their feet.” He was referring to oil, gas, and coal reserves.
Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases demonstrably cause global warming. This brings, among other things, extreme weather and rising sea levels, and thus makes habitats, food supplies, and water supplies worldwide more insecure.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the agency’s designation of CO₂ as a health-damaging pollutant was based on a faulty interpretation of the federal air quality laws. These laws are intended to protect Americans from pollutants that could cause damage on a local or regional level, but not from damage caused by the warming of the global climate. “This faulty legal theory has repeatedly led the agency beyond the scope of its statutory authority,” the statement said.
Lawsuit Expected
Environmental groups announced lawsuits against Trump’s decision. His order violates the law, said Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Climate advocates rely on a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, according to which greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and must be regulated by the EPA.
The outcome of the anticipated legal dispute is uncertain, commented Inside Climate News. Five of the nine Supreme Court justices who in 2007 voted for EPA’s jurisdiction are no longer in office. The four opponents, however, are. Trump has also appointed three conservatives to the court.
Trump had been elected in 2024 with the explicit promise to roll back climate- and environmental policies. He called human-caused climate change an “invention.” In January 2025, the United States withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. As the New York Times reported, the response from the economy to Trump’s announcement was mixed. Some associations welcomed his move, others did not comment or spoke cautiously. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce acknowledged “the scientific reality of climate change.”
EPA head Lee Zeldin accused the Barack Obama administration, which was in office in 2009, of an “ideological crusade” on Thursday. Trump’s decision is the largest deregulation measure in U.S. history. It is being carried out for the benefit of taxpayers and consumers.
Criticism of the Trump administration’s move also comes from abroad. The decision to discard a central basis for regulating greenhouse gases is ideologically motivated, said Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) on Deutschlandfunk. What the U.S. administration is doing is the opposite of Europe’s approach, “because it is ideologically driven and above all about expanding business through oil and gas sales.”
