©Unsplash
The Trump administration has just toppled the pillar of US climate regulation, removing the scientific assessment that recognizes greenhouse gases as a public health risk and ending federal standards on car and truck emissions.
This decision marks the deepest environmental setback in recent U.S. history, and officially reopens the season of energy deregulation, i.e. the drastic reduction of public constraints on the production, consumption and environmental impacts of oil, gas and coal.
This measure, announced in Washington in collaboration with the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), removes the 'endangerment finding', the legal basis introduced in 2009 which had enabled the federal government to limit climate-impacting emissions under the Clean Air Act, the landmark federal law governing air quality protection in the United States. For Donald Trump, this is the "biggest deregulatory operation ever", a turnaround that, according to the White House's intentions, should ease costs for businesses and consumers alike. However, according to many analysts, in the medium term it's likely to shift far greater burdens onto the healthcare system, families and territories.
According to the EPA, the assessment of climate danger was based on an extensive interpretation of air quality laws, designed to combat local and regional pollutants, and not a global phenomenon such as global warming. This interpretation overturns fifteen years of case law and public policy, and effectively reduces the federal government's ability to intervene in one of the major systemic risk factors of the 21st century.
This decision has an immediate impact on one of the most important sectors in terms of climate. Transport and energy, each responsible for around a quarter of national emissions, are now moving away from a regulatory framework that aimed for a gradual reduction in carbon footprint, with the aim of accelerating the transition to electric mobility and renewable sources. This change of direction comes at a time when extreme events such as fires, heat waves and floods are already putting a strain on infrastructure, healthcare systems and public budgets in many states.
The manufacturing world is reacting in different ways. The major automakers, while critical of targets deemed difficult to achieve in the short term, now fear regulatory fragmentation between different states and a long period of legal uncertainty.
The coal industry is more enthusiastic, as it sees the possibility of slowing down the closure of the oldest power plants and postponing investment in new production capacity, thus extending the life cycle of the most polluting sources.
According to the administration's estimates, repealing these rules could generate savings of up to $1,300 billion (approx. 1,096 billion euros). Environmentalists, however, take a contrary view, pointing out that the previous climate policy promised net economic benefits for citizens through reduced fuel and maintenance costs, and above all reduced health expenses linked to air pollution.
Environmental organizations have announced immediate appeals, convinced that the EPA's authority to intervene on greenhouse gases remains legally sound. The legal battle could last for years and go all the way to the Supreme Court, reopening a front already explored in the past, when federal judges recognized the agency's right and duty to regulate climate-impacting emissions.
Experts warn that the removal of risk assessment could have a boomerang effect, encouraging a proliferation of civil lawsuits based on the concept of 'public nuisance', with unpredictable consequences for businesses and local governments.
Meanwhile, the United States is further distancing itself from international efforts to combat global warming, following its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the end of incentives for clean energy. Washington's turn is not just a change of national course: in an interconnected climate system, the return to fossil America weighs on global balance and makes the race against time to limit rising temperatures even more fragile.
(©GreenMe.it 2026 / Managing Editor: Selma Keshkire - The Press Junction / Picture: Unsplash)