The Brief

The Trump administration's plan to undo a landmark finding that climate pollution threatens public health and welfare poses lots of risks for corporate America.

The Environmental Protection Agency's endangerment finding has served as the legal basis for federal climate regulations under the Clean Air Act since 2009. The finding concludes that the accumulation of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere endangers people's health and the well-being of communities. Reaching that determination was a prerequisite to set limits for the pollution. Getting rid of that authority would lead to the repeal of "all greenhouse gas standards" at the federal level, according to the EPA, amounting, it says, to "one of the largest deregulatory actions in American history."

Companies have long complained that the government's efforts to rein in heat-trapping pollution are impractical. But a lot of businesses want the EPA to be in charge of setting national standards of some kind, according to proponents and legal experts, because it helps shield them from lawsuits and creates a predictable environment in which to make big, long-term investments.

"I look at what the administration wants to accomplish with regards to our national security and winning the AI race — we want to have expansive energy production. We have that opportunity. We can do that affordably, and we can do it while we're managing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions," says Lisa Jacobson, president of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, whose members include major electricity producers and a trade group for the natural gas industry.

"I would like to focus more on that, than changes to these regulatory policies," Jacobson says, "which will cause disruption in planning and moving forward with projects we need today."

Jeff Holmstead, an environmental lawyer at the firm Bracewell, says he doesn't know of any major industry groups that pushed the EPA to reverse its position on the dangers posed by climate pollution.

"Several of them have opposed it," says Holmstead, who was an EPA official under then-President George W. Bush. "And I know that a number of companies were trying to persuade the administration not to do it."

The American Petroleum Institute, a trade group for oil and gas companies, told NPR that it "continues to support a federal role in regulating greenhouse gas emissions."

The EPA said in a statement to NPR that Congress never authorized the agency to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin "has long been on the record that the climate is changing," the agency said. "EPA's proposal is primarily legal."

The Trump administration said this spring that it was reconsidering the endangerment finding as part of a sweeping initiative to roll back environmental rules. At the time, Zeldin said the goal was "driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion."

Public hearings on the EPA's plan are scheduled for this week.

Rain from Hurricane Ian in 2022 floods a street in Charleston, South Carolina. Neighborhoods in Charleston are flooding more often as climate change raises sea levels and drives more intense rainstorms.

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Companies use EPA regulations as a defense in lawsuits

Environmental advocates, public health experts and former EPA employees say the Trump administration's proposal contradicts a long-standing scientific consensus that climate pollution, mainly from burning fossil fuels like oil and coal, is raising global temperatures and driving more intense storms, floods and wildfires that threaten communities.

Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist whose work is cited in the EPA proposal and in an Energy Department report on the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, said in an online posting that the Trump administration "cherrypicks figures and parts of studies to support a preconceived narrative that minimizes the risk of climate change."

The EPA said in a statement to NPR that it "considered a variety of sources and information in assessing whether the predictions made, and assumptions used, in the 2009 Endangerment Finding are accurate and consistent" with the agency's authority under the Clean Air Act. The Energy Department said in a statement that its climate change report "critically assesses many areas of ongoing scientific inquiry that are frequently assigned high levels of confidence — not by the scientists themselves but by the political bodies involved, such as the United Nations or previous Presidential administrations."

The impacts of rising temperatures are being felt in communities around the United States. And states and localities have filed dozens of lawsuits in recent years alleging fossil fuel companies misled the public for decades about the dangers of burning fossil fuels. The lawsuits seek money to help communities cope with risks and damages from global warming.

Those cases have been filed in state courts. In some instances, the EPA's current regulation of climate pollution has helped protect oil and gas companies from litigation.

A state judge in South Carolina recently dismissed a lawsuit that the city of Charleston filed against companies in the oil and gas industry, in part because, the judge said, greenhouse gas emissions are an issue for the federal government to deal with.

"One of the main defenses that the oil companies are raising in these lawsuits pending in state courts is that there is preemption by the federal Clean Air Act," says Michael Gerrard, a professor at Columbia Law School. "If the federal Clean Air Act is no longer regulating greenhouse gas emissions through EPA, then that defense could go away."

Weakening a defense used by the fossil fuel industry could expose companies to more legal risk, Holmstead says. "There [are] plenty of people out there who want to bring lawsuits," he says, "and it seems like this would just invite a lot more litigation."

Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer for Chevron, says the EPA's proposal to stop regulating climate pollution doesn't affect the oil and gas company's defense. Regardless of what the Trump administration does, the Supreme Court has already ruled that greenhouse gas emissions are covered by the federal Clean Air Act, Boutrous said in an emailed statement to NPR.

But Trump administration supporters think the Supreme Court is poised to overturn that ruling.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, said in written comments to the EPA that the Supreme Court "wrongly decided" the 2007 case in which it labeled carbon dioxide as "air pollution" under the Clean Air Act. The group notes that the five justices in the majority on that case are gone from the court. The comments were submitted on behalf of four California businesses and trade groups, including a company that uses natural gas boilers to make tomato products and a trucking association whose members are subject to EPA climate regulations.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin testifies before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Environment in May. The EPA has proposed undoing a landmark finding that climate pollution threatens public health and welfare.

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Regulatory debate highlights tensions on the right

Holmstead says it's a toss-up what the Supreme Court would do now.

The court historically has been reluctant to reverse prior rulings, Holmstead says. But he says the court's conservative supermajority "probably would agree that Congress didn't clearly intend for EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions."

Such a ruling could create havoc for businesses, according to a trade group for electric utilities. In a 2022 Supreme Court brief, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) said that having the EPA regulate climate pollution creates an orderly system for cutting emissions while minimizing economic impacts on consumers and businesses. Rolling back the agency's authority could expose companies to a flurry of environmental lawsuits, the group said, adding: "This would be chaos."

"Industry really has accepted the endangerment finding. They have accepted that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are pollutants and that something needs to be done with that," says Jim Murphy, director of legal advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation, a conservation group.

But in the conservative movement, "there's an element out there that just wants to pretend that [climate change] is not a problem," Murphy says, "and that this is something that snowflakes and soft folks on the left are screaming about."

EEI said in a statement to NPR that it supports EPA "establishing clear, consistent regulatory policies that drive energy infrastructure investment and strengthen America's economic and energy security."

The fact that the EPA is moving ahead with its plan to stop regulating climate pollution despite serious concerns from corporations highlights a growing divide between the business and ideological wings of the Republican Party, says Holmstead, who under George W. Bush's administration ran the EPA office that develops air pollution regulations.

"Traditionally, Republican administrations have believed in trying to reduce the regulatory burden, but I think they've paid more attention to the concerns of the business community," Holmstead says. "And I don't want to suggest that the Trump administration is impervious to those concerns. But for ideological reasons, they are doing a number of things that U.S. business is not supportive of."
Copyright 2025 NPR

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Jan. 27, 2026.

East Los Angeles pastor Carlos Rincon stood outside a Minneapolis church on Friday, in below-zero temperatures, livestreaming what he was witnessing on the ground in the face of violence by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the region.

In a matter of weeks, he said, “an army of people” at Dios Habla Hoy Church in Minneapolis managed to distribute food packages to thousands of families — including green card holders and U.S. citizens — who were too afraid to leave their homes for food and worship.

“The persecution in Minneapolis is terrible, more cruel than what’s happened in Los Angeles,” the pastor said in his video. Federal agents “are going against anyone,” Rincon, who pastors the Assemblies of God church Centro de Vida Victoriosa in East L.A., told Boyle Heights Beat.

Rincon, who has attended vigils and protests against immigration raids in LA, was in Minneapolis for three days. He witnessed clergy getting arrested at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport in an anti-ICE protest. He marched with tens of thousands of Minnesotans amid the state’s general strike against ICE.

Since Rincon’s visit, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said some federal agents will begin to leave Tuesday amid outrage over the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal immigration agents.

In Minneapolis, Rincon was struck by the number of white Americans showing up in defense of immigrants. He recalled elderly American women “battling the snow” as they kept watch for agents. He also saw as many as 500 or more people sorting food inside the church for distribution.

Rincon spent time with Dios Habla Hoy pastor Sergio Amezcua, who has denounced ICE as “acting like narco cartels back in Mexico.” Amezcua’s church set up a system — involving volunteers of all religious and ethnic backgrounds — to deliver food to thousands of families in the area.

“I got citizens, permanent residents, they avoid coming to church. … We preach to the world religious freedom and Minnesota people cannot go to church,” Amezcua said in a video on the nonprofit news site Mother Jones.

“And if they come to church, there’s ICE agents outside of churches waiting for them,” he said. “It’s really evil what’s going on.”

The Rev. Carlos Rincon spent three days in Minneapolis.

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A board member of the Latino Christian and National Network, Rincon said he went to Minneapolis to gauge the needs of Latino churches in the area. He said Dios Habla Hoy Church had to implement added security measures before letting anyone inside the church.

“I’m impressed by the city, people of Minneapolis, how selflessly they serve,” Rincon said. “They’re willing to risk their own lives.”

Rincon, who is part of the LA-based Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, wants more religious Latino leaders to denounce ICE violence.

His denomination, the fast-growing Assemblies of God, is made up of about 180,000 adherents in its Southern California network, many of whom are immigrants. Rincon said a fellow LA pastor is currently at risk of deportation. It’s a conservative denomination, he said, “that has been captivated by the Republican Party.”

“Although we are targets, the evangelical Pentecostal churches, they’re not speaking on this issue,” said Rincon, who is Mexican American. “I’m trying to change that.”

“I’m taking a risk because I wasn’t born in this country. I’m a naturalized American, but I believe in what I do,” he added.

In LA, Rincon and his largely immigrant church, which he has led for nearly 40 years, have helped provide funds to immigrant families in need during the raids. While not all congregants agree on everything, “they see me as their spiritual leader,” he said.

Rincon returned to LA on Saturday, just in time to attend a downtown interfaith vigil outside of the federal building, where he addressed clergy and others.

“I come in love with the beloved community of Minneapolis,” he said in Spanish. “They are rising up. They are fighting. “Thank you, Lord, for Minneapolis, because they have opened their doors and protected the vulnerable.”

“They are saving lives when others have built walls,” Rincon continued.

We're in for another mild day with partly to mostly cloudy skies. The National Weather Service forecasts that come Thursday, temperatures will rise more and the Santa Ana winds will return.

Coastal communities in the L.A. area will see highs mostly around 70 degrees today. Meanwhile, the Orange County coast will stay cooler with high temperatures around 62 degrees.

More inland, the valleys and the Inland Empire will see highs from 69 to 75 degrees, up to 76 degrees in Coachella Valley. In the Antelope Valley, highs will be mostly in the low 60s.