WASHINGTON, February 13, 2026 – The Trump administration on Thursday repealed a key legal opinion, eliminating federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions that drive the climate crisis in a scientifically baseless and legally indefensible move that sacrifices health and safety, according to the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).
The resulting federal vacuum could lead US states to develop their own regulations. In the meantime, environmental groups announced they would challenge the rollback of the so-called endangerment finding in court.
In October 2025, CIEL submitted written comments opposing the proposed rollback, arguing that it defies scientific consensus, ignores the lived realities of communities already facing the effects of climate change, violates the US Environmental Protection Agency’s legal mandate and the United States’ obligations under international law to prevent the significant harm that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cause to human rights and the environment. These obligations were affirmed by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion on climate change last year.
CIEL cautioned that eliminating the endangerment finding would deepen climate risks at home and abroad and weaken global efforts to avert even more catastrophic harm from climate change.
Nikki Reisch, Climate & Energy Program Director at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), issued the following statement:
“This move by the US administration is poised to break the law and the thermometer. Repealing the endangerment finding puts this government on a collision course not just with science and the law, but with the health and safety of millions of people already facing the escalating impacts of climate change, across the US and around the world.
“Denying the clear and present danger that greenhouse gas emissions pose to people and the planet does not make the threat go away. It strips the federal government of a key tool to curb fossil fuel pollution— but not of its legal duty to do so. As the world’s highest court made clear last year, all countries, including the US, must do everything in their power to prevent further climate harm. This decision does the opposite. It heightens the risk, sacrificing environmental protection and public health for industry profits and private interest.
“On the international stage, it cements this US administration’s position as an outlier and global pariah, and thrusts state and local governments into the driver’s seat on climate action.
“Businesses that take the repeal as permission to pollute should reconsider. For one, the rollback will face legal challenges. But more fundamentally, companies cannot unhear the truth of climate science or unsee the data on the harm fossil fuels cause—all of which can be evidence in court. They still have a duty to reduce pollution and prevent harm—even if the US federal government abdicates its own.”
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