[Sept. 23, 2025] Today, Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) issued a public comment praising President Trump for eliminating Obama-era climate rules the EPA had no authority to issue in the first place.

In 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency issued the “Endangerment Finding” – unilaterally re-writing the Clean Air Act to justify its own desire to assert authority over nearly everything and every industry. For everyday Americans, that meant higher costs for cars and energy, fewer choices, and a government agency making big decisions about their lives without a single vote in Congress.

The Endangerment Finding which classified all greenhouse gases as harmful “air pollutants” is both illegal and unconstitutional.

SLF explained in its comment, “Beyond the inaccuracy of EPA’s findings, the Endangerment Finding was unlawful because EPA lacked any authority to issue it. Rather than answering the narrow question—as directed by CAA Section 202—of whether the emissions EPA sought to regulate are causing any danger (which the Obama and Biden EPA conceded they did not do), EPA made sweeping findings about greenhouse gas emissions’ contributions to “global climate change” generally.”

SLF has long argued that the EPA’s actions were both unlawful and unscientific. The organization previously filed and won a lawsuit against the EPA for trying to rewrite the Clean Air Act and impose its own climate standards on car manufacturers. Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately recognized the EPA’s overstep and revoked its unfounded authority.

SLF President Kim Hermann said, “The EPA overstepped with its Endangerment Finding, crafting rules supposedly for the betterment of society, even though Congress had never given them that authority. The agency’s job as established by Congress is to address pollution concerns if there is clear evidence of public health endangerment, not to invent sweeping mandates without proof. The EPA however took the law into their own hands and overstepped, making sweeping mandates without any actual evidence. President Trump is absolutely right to rescind these Obama-era rules and to ensure the EPA is carrying out its important role of protecting people from actually dangerous emissions, not pushing a political agenda.”

Download press release.