“We’ll be less safe, less healthy,” Obama condemns Trump climate policy reversal
Former US President Barack Obama has criticised the Trump administration after it repealed a key climate policy known as the “endangerment finding,” the scientific determination that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to human health and welfare.
Posting on X, Obama said the move would weaken environmental protections put in place during his presidency.
“Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules,” he wrote. “Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change, all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money,” Obama added.
The repeal, announced Thursday by President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also eliminates federal tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks. It marks the most sweeping climate policy rollback by the administration so far, following a series of measures aimed at expanding fossil fuel production and slowing clean energy initiatives.
Speaking alongside EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and White House budget director Russ Vought, Trump described the decision as “the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”
“We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and drove up prices for American consumers,” Trump said.
The EPA said the original finding relied on what it called an incorrect interpretation of the Clean Air Act, arguing the law was intended to address pollutants that cause local or regional harm, not global climate change.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
