White House says Trump plans to rescind climate change finding key to auto rules

By David Shepardson and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump plans to formalize on Thursday a move to overturn the Obama-era legal basis for federal ‌greenhouse gas rules, which will lead to the repeal of vehicle emissions rules, the ‌White House said on Tuesday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump will be joined at an event ​by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin to formalize the rescission of then-President Barack Obama's 2009 scientific finding that carbon dioxide endangers human health.

She said the move was the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history and estimated it would reduce costs for automakers by $2,400 per vehicle.

The move, which Trump's Republican administration ‌formally proposed in July, marks its ⁠most sweeping climate change policy rollback to date and follows a string of regulatory cuts and other moves intended to unfetter fossil fuel development and ⁠stymie the rollout of clean energy.

An EPA spokesperson said the finding had been used by the Democratic Obama and Biden administrations to "justify trillions of dollars of greenhouse gas regulations covering new vehicles and engines."

Rules introduced ​by former ​President Joe Biden's administration in 2024 aimed to cut ​passenger vehicle fleetwide tailpipe emissions by ‌nearly 50% by 2032 compared with 2027 projected levels.

The EPA forecast between 35% and 56% of new vehicles sold between 2030 and 2032 would need to be electric, and said the rules would result in net benefits of $99 billion annually through 2055, including $46 billion in reduced fuel costs, and $16 billion in reduced maintenance and repair costs for drivers.

Consumers were expected to save an average of $6,000 over ‌the lifetime of new vehicles from reduced fuel and ​maintenance costs.

A group representing major automakers asked the EPA in ​September to roll back aggressive vehicle emissions ​limits but argued the agency should still rewrite the Biden rules, saying ‌they "still need to be revised to feasible ​levels to provide certainty for ​the industry."

"Such a contingency plan will be critical if motor vehicle GHG standards are retained or reinstated in some way," said the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, ​Toyota, Volkswagen and other major ‌automakers.

The repeal will remove regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal ​GHG emission standards for cars and trucks.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Andrea Shalal and Steve ​Holland; editing by Michelle Nichols and Nia Williams)