BOSTON — The Trump administration’s proposed rescission of EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding classifying greenhouse gases as pollutants would be the “largest deregulatory action in the history of the country,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said July 30.

Speaking at the Summer Policy Summit of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, Zeldin touted the Trump administration’s “energy dominance agenda” and said deregulating the fossil fuel industry will help the U.S. compete with China and serve growing demand from artificial intelligence.

EPA’s endangerment finding is the legal basis of a range of federal regulations targeting climate-warming emissions, and its elimination could have major effects on emission-reduction efforts throughout the country. The agency issued the endangerment finding under the Obama administration after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that it has the authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate GHGs. (See related story, EPA Proposes Rescission of Endangerment Finding that Underpins All GHG Rules.)

Zeldin said the Obama administration took a “creative approach” when issuing the endangerment finding and said the finding has been undercut by recent Supreme Court cases, including the elimination of the Chevron doctrine, which gave deference to agencies in their interpretations of laws.

“We’re living in a bit of a different world in 2025 than 2009 because of all the Supreme Court cases,” Zeldin said. “The Supreme Court has made it pretty clear that agencies like the EPA shouldn’t just be filling in any vague language in the statute.”

Deregulating the oil, gas and coal industries will be essential “if you want to make America the AI capital world [and] if you want to unleash energy dominance,” Zeldin said.

He argued that regulatory rollbacks will help the country’s economy and national security, and added that “if you care about our environment, it improves our environment, because in the United States, we tap into our energy supply so much better than so many other countries do.”

In June, the administration proposed to repeal GHG emissions standards for new power plants and Biden-era updates to the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards. (See EPA Proposes Repealing Limits on Power Plant Greenhouse Gas Emissions.)

“We will actually have more deregulation in one year at EPA than the entire federal governments, across all agencies, across entire presidencies, primarily because of the stuff that was done in 2023 and 2024,” Zeldin added.

The Trump administration’s actions to deregulate the fossil fuel industry have drawn strong criticism from climate scientists and activists. Emissions from fossil fuel combustion are one of the core drivers of human-caused climate change.

Other Trump administration officials speaking at the NARUC event also emphasized the importance of bringing new generation and transmission infrastructure online to meet AI demand.

Peter Lake, senior director of power at the National Energy Dominance Council, said the U.S. is facing “an inflection point in the history of industrial technologies,” adding that “we’ve all heard about the amazing things that AI can do — the incredible benefits to health care; technology; communication; picking wine at dinner; … optimizing shopping for my girlfriend.”

Nick Elliot, director of the Grid Deployment Office at the Department of Energy, said the U.S. needs to rapidly scale up the development of gas resources to balance the system as load grows, adding that supply chain backlogs must be addressed to achieve this buildout.

He said DOE’s recent changes to National Environmental Policy Act procedures should help reduce development timelines throughout the U.S.

“We are looking specifically to try and streamline regulation as much as we can, to give developers as much visibility on timelines and process to get things online,” Elliot said.

Deputy Energy Secretary James Danly said market reforms are needed to incentivize new resources to come online at the necessary rate to meet anticipated demand. He noted that the PJM capacity auction clearing at the price cap earlier in the month indicates prices “probably should have been higher” and criticized “subsidy regimes that warp the price signals” and hurt development. (See PJM Capacity Prices Hit $329/MW-day Price Cap.)

He expressed optimism about the changes to federal tax credits made by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, calling the bill “an important part of getting energy policy correct.” (See U.S. Clean Energy Sector Faces Cuts and Limitations.)

The Trump administration believes “very much in the free market,” Danly said. He added that “capitalism is the engine by which America achieves great things, and this is the way we’re going to meet the needs that industries have for electricity, for gas [and] for energy of all types.”