Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

The New York Times ^ | Feb. 12, 2026Updated 3:39 p.m. ET | Lisa Friedman

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Environmental Protection Agency repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being. It means the agency can no longer regulate them.

President Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.

The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather.

Led by a president who refers to climate change as a “hoax,” the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be.

It’s a rejection of fact that had been accepted for decades by presidents of both parties, including Richard Nixon, whose top adviser warned of the dangers of climate change and the first President George Bush, who signed an international climate treaty.

And it is a knockout punch in the yearslong fight by a small group of conservative activists as well as oil, gas and coal interests to stop the country from transitioning away from fossil fuels and toward solar, wind and other nonpolluting energy.

“This is about as big as it gets,” President Trump said at the White House as a smiling Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, stood by. “We are officially terminating the so-called ‘endangerment finding,’ a disastrous Obama-era policy,” he said.

Mr. Trump called it a “radical rule” that became “the basis for the Green New Scam,” a label the president gives to any effort to curb emissions or develop renewable energy. Mr. Zeldin called...

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: climatechange; climatechangefraud

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"...bedrock scientific finding..."

Nothing "scientific" about it.

[Thistledew]

Climate Change should be known by its more common term “grift” or “fraud”.

[Dr. Sivana]

When did Departments that fall under the Executive become “The Government”?

[HIDEK6]

Yuk yuk yuk.

[Libloather]

Led by a president who refers to climate change as a “hoax,” the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be.

Kinda sounds like Lisa is a hoax denier.

[palmer]

It’s a rejection of fact that had been accepted for decades by presidents of both parties,

True but not the way they think it is. It's true that presidents of both parties have allowed the federal bureaucracy to legislate. Trump is the first president to say no, the bureaucrats must follow law not write it.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

The Government never had the power to “fight climate change”. They just picked your pocket while telling you they did.

I can hardly wait for a plane ticket that does NOT include a CO2 tax!

[Tunehead54]

AGW or lying scruples-free main stream press?

File under both of course bump!

😎

[WASCWatch]

There goes the never ending scams for scam studies.

[Agatsu77]

There was NO science involved with that decision in the first place. To repeat something I hear way too much, “Follow the science.” my add is “Don’t make s^^t up!.”

[Big Red Badger]

This Is HUGE!
.
TREEHUGGERS HARDEST HIT !

[dadgum]

Anthropogenic climate catastrophe is 100% a hoax.

Follow the $$$$….

[Sam Gamgee]

I’m not much of a dancer but here goes. So much WINNING.

[Carl Vehse]

"... bedrock scientific finding... "

The "findings" were something leftwing scientists and woke globaists pulled out of their collective keisters.

[Westbrook]

The government never had any power to “fight climate change”.

Climate has been changing since Creation.

Where I’m sitting was once buried beneath a mile or more of ice. No government could have changed that. Only the God of Creation could do that.

Government and government funded “science” can’t change anything at that scale. It was always a hoax to extort more money and exert more control.

[grobdriver]

Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

You can't fight Mother Nature.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

---- "Nothing "scientific" about it."

Indeed. And yet so many have become "invested" in the "consensus" which is a hoax. As a glaring example:

"The earth's rapidly changing climate and an increase in weather extremes have led NATO to accelerate its efforts in environmental security and environmental protection. For decades, NATO has been dealing with environmental security issues that can lead to humanitarian disasters, regional tensions and violence. NATO provides disaster relief support; focuses on environmental risks to military activities and security in general, including environmental factors that affect energy supplies; and is looking for ways to improve energy efficiency in the military through innovative technologies."

Environment, climate change and security NATO, 18 July 2024

Yup. NATO thought / thinks it can "fight" climate change. As with the NYTimes assertion, this is a "fight."

That is correct. It has been a "fight" for funds, grifters of all sorts trying and sometimes succeeding in picking the taxpayers' pockets.

[SteveH]

Ya maybe, but meanwhile what is the nyt doing to fight global rotation change??

[Fungi]

“It was always a hoax to extort more money and exert more control.” Bingo! Not necessarily in that order.

[gibsonguy]

Every word of this article is a lie.