The administrator of the EPA in the Trump administration, Lee Zeldin, is looking to withdraw the 2009 “risk finding” that found that greenhouse gases threaten human health and well-being, possibly as early as this week, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The EPA’s finding laid the legal groundwork for federal regulation of six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, and it has not been successfully challenged since it was first initiated.

The move will almost certainly attract more lawsuits, and it could be years before the matter is resolved. The EPA’s move only affects tailpipe emissions for cars and trucks, though the Trump administration is expected to use it to unwind regulations in other sectors such as power plants and industrial facilities.

Legacy automakers, which pushed Trump to loosen fuel efficiency rulesespecially without pushing the EPA to withdraw the hazard finding. Tesla continued, asking the EPA to continue the searchstating that it is “based on a solid fact and scientific record.”

If the Trump administration is successful, the US will be increasingly out of step with the regulations of other advanced economies. Companies doing business across borders must develop different procedures for each market, which increases costs.

Automakers, in particular, face a future in which they will be forced to serve bifurcated markets, at least in the near term. Regulatory whiplash in the US coupled with increasing competition from China is costing automakers ten billion dollars.

American automakers’ reliance on fossil fuel-powered trucks, in particular, has painted the domestic industry into a corner, providing addictive profits that interfere with future-proofing their fleets in the first place. it seems inevitable competition from Chinese marques.

The Trump administration told the WSJ it expects the policy change to save more than $1 trillion, though it did not provide any evidence to support that figure.

Climate change is expected to cost even more. The Congressional Budget Office found that nearly $1 trillion worth of real estate is threatened by rising sea levels, and US death rates could 2% higher if global warming does not stop. Another study, published in 2024, found that climate change is possible cut global GDP by 17% in 2050, equal to $38 trillion per year.