With Latest Rollback, the U.S. Essentially Has No Clean-Car Rules

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/climate/endangerment-finding-auto-emissions-regulations.html

https://archive.ph/7qyms

With Latest Rollback, the U.S. Essentially Has No Clean-Car Rules
The E.P.A.’s killing of the “endangerment finding” caps a year of deregulation that is likely to make cars thirstier for gas and less competitive globally, experts say.
By Hiroko Tabuchi
Feb. 16, 2026, 5:04 a.m. ET

The momentous end to the federal government’s legal authority to fight climate change makes it official.

The United States will essentially have no laws on the books that enforce how efficient America’s passenger cars and trucks should be.

That’s the practical result of the Trump administration’s yearlong parade of regulatory rollbacks, capped on Thursday by its killing of the “endangerment finding,” the scientific determination that required the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases because of the threat to human health.

“The U.S. no longer has emission standards of any meaning,” said Margo T. Oge, who served as the E.P.A.’s top vehicle emissions regulator under three presidents and has since advised both automakers and environmental groups.

“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”

...

[themaguffin]

1. For what it's worth, changes to cars take years & automakers know that ultimately things will

change back on some level. This is not good of course, but I don't see automakers rushing to make changes.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. 55 years of progress undone in 13 months.

And that’s just the EPA.

Thanks, Putin.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Some states will still have them. NT