On Thursday, February 12, the Trump administration rescinded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2009 endangerment finding for greenhouse gases (GHGs) and federal regulation of passenger vehicle GHG emissions—policies that form the bedrock of the federal government’s actions to address climate change and protect Americans from its consequences. Reversing action on climate change will have drastic effects on human health, life expectancy, and ecosystems on a global scale, and it will also raise costs for American consumers. The EPA previously estimated that vehicle emission standards—recently revoked by the Trump administration—would have saved consumers an average of $58 billion per year on fuel between 2027 and 2055. Extreme weather fueled by climate change is driving rising insurance costs, which grew 40 percent faster than inflation between 2017 and 2022. Children born in the United States in 2024 could see climate change cost them $500,000 over their lifetime in lost earnings and added cost burdens, such as increased spending on housing, energy, food, and health care.
What is the endangerment finding?
The endangerment finding is the recognition by the EPA that greenhouse gases threaten Americans’ health and welfare just like other pollutants such as soot and heavy metals. That decision, made in 2009, was the result of decades of rigorous scientific research and has served as a cornerstone of the federal government’s legal authority to address climate change ever since. Under the Clean Air Act, once the EPA establishes that a pollutant poses a danger to public health and welfare, the agency is required to regulate it. The endangerment finding has underpinned federal standards on vehicle emissions, methane emissions from oil and gas operations, and power plant emissions. With it revoked, the EPA loses a powerful tool to address the actions of corporate polluters that contribute to climate change.
Increasing fuel costs
Revoking the endangerment finding directly benefits the oil and gas industry. During his campaign, President Trump asked the oil and gas industries for $1 billion in campaign support while promising that he would gut major environmental and climate protections—specifically those supporting the adoption of clean energy and electric vehicles (EVs). Responding to the request, the oil and gas industry contributed at least $75 million to the Trump campaign and affiliated PACs in the 2024 election cycle and spent an additional $104 million on lobbying in 2025. Now it appears the president is making good on that promise, undermining EVs and other fuel-efficient vehicles to raise oil demand and prices, all for the benefit of oil companies.
The revocation of vehicle GHG standards will benefit the oil industry at the expense of everyday American drivers, who will end up spending more on fuel as a result. Revoking federal GHG standards will allow automakers to deprioritize cleaner vehicles, which consume less gas, meaning that new vehicles could consume more gas per mile than those already on the road. This helps oil companies by increasing demand for their product but harms drivers, who will pay to consume additional fuel that also costs more because of higher demand. The EPA previously estimated that vehicle emissions standards would have saved consumers an average of $61 billion per year on fuel between 2027 and 2055. With those standards revoked, drivers will pay those costs—both because they will need to fuel up more often and will pay higher prices when they do. The Trump administration’s own analysis of the effects of repealing the standards quietly concedes that doing so will increase gasoline prices.
With the average price paid for a new vehicle exceeding $50,000 for the first time ever in late 2025 and auto repossession rates at historic highs, revoking federal standards that saved drivers money on fuel is a step in the wrong direction for transportation affordability. Instead, Americans need cleaner vehicles, which typically save Americans money compared with gasoline-powered cars. For example, an EV driver can save between $500 to $1,000 on fuel per year. If the administration wants to bring down costs, it should incentivize these vehicles rather than attempt to undermine them.
Increasing insurance costs
Forcing Americans to spend more on gasoline will likely also lead to worsening climate change. The EPA estimated that by avoiding the use of $58 billion worth of gasoline per year, its vehicle standards would have also prevented $1.6 trillionin climate damages globally between 2027 and 2055. This includes worse health outcomes, increased property damage from extreme weather, lost agricultural productivity, and increased energy costs. Revoking the standards will allow this damage to occur.
The financial burdens of climate change are being felt by Americans today. Researchers calculate that climate change is already costing American households between $400 and $900 per year. These costs are largely driven by natural disaster and extreme weather damages, as well as increasing insurance costs as insurers cope with more frequent and severe losses. The most damaging hurricanes are now three times more likely than they were in the early 1900s, and the percentage of Atlantic hurricanes that reach category 3 strength or higher has doubled since 1980. Meanwhile, the area burned by wildfires annually in the American West has increased approximately 800 percent since 1985, with about half of the increase attributable to climate change.
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These increasingly frequent and severe these events are driving large increases in home insurance costs, with premiums climbing to more than $2,300 per year for policyholders in the top 20 percent of ZIP codes at risk of losses from extreme weather. Between 2017 and 2022, home insurance premiums grew 40 percent faster than inflation. Rapidly increasing insurance prices, driven significantly by extreme weather, make affording insurance difficult for many households, especially those in high-risk areas. For example, in hurricane-exposed Florida, average annual premiums have increased by 88 percent since 2014. Because banks require homeowners to carry property insurance to obtain a mortgage, the lack of affordable insurance can force homeowners to purchase residual policies that cover less of their losses if a disaster occurs and delay first-time homebuyers from building wealth through homeownership. Higher climate risk, along with higher insurance premiums, also can reduce property values significantly, making it difficult for homeowners to sell.
Conclusion
Revoking the endangerment finding and the standards that flow from it means oil and gas companies will make more money while American households deal with higher energy prices and the costs of climate change that those companies have caused. If the Trump administration truly wants to lower prices, then it should drop its favoritism toward the oil and gas industry and support solutions that lower costs and raise wages for Americans.