This week President Trump announced that the EPA would reverse and eliminate an Obama Administration greenhouse gas rule that has been unfairly used to justify broad and sweeping “climate change” regulations. Specifically, the EPA will remove the 2009 “endangerment finding,” which identifies six greenhouse gases—which provide vital food for plants in greenhouses—as “a threat to public health and welfare.” And, because this standard was so broadly used, its roll back is being considered the largest act of environmental deregulation in American history.
This Obama administration regulation has been used as a justification for regulations forcing the increase in arbitrary fuel economy standards and limiting power plant emissions. “More energy drives human flourishing,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated. “Energy abundance is the thing that we have to focus on, not regulating certain forms of energy out.”
The misleading and disingenuous part of the Obama regulation is noted by the Wall Street Journal which has stated that “… greenhouse gases aren’t toxic and don’t affect air quality, unlike pollutants that the law expressly directs the EPA to regulate.” (WSJ, 2-13-26).
The Heritage Foundation best summarizes the dangers posed by ‘the endangerment finding’ and the vital role greenhouse gasses play in increasing crop yields and, therefore, economic security. “Contrary to predictions that changes in climate are going to cause forest, cropland, and rangeland productivity to decline over time, recent data show that the known fertilizing effect of additional carbon dioxide (CO2)—which is literally food for plants—has offset many of the predicted adverse effects by enhancing drought tolerance and plant growth. From record harvests for virtually all crops in recent years and a flat, long-term trend in forest fires, real observations show that innovations in crop genetics, pest control, and water management, in addition to modifications of timber harvest and fire-suppression practices, are mitigating the predicted adverse effects of increased greenhouse gases and ensuring the future productivity of these ecosystems.”
We recall Al Gore, in his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, focused on climate change. The film included a moving clip of a ‘sad, animated polar bear floating away to its death’ suggesting that global warming would cause the extinction of the polar bear population. But this is false because the global polar bear population has increased substantially from around 12,000 in the 1960s to around 26,000 in the present day.
The same is true for the ‘greatly exaggerated’ demise of the Great Coral Reefs after public media was deluged with reports of the “Great Reef Catastrophe” which predicted global destruction by 2022. However, for the past three years, the Great Barrier Reef has had more coral cover than at any point since records began in 1985, with 2024 setting a new record.
I also note a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “A Climate Study Retraction for the Ages.” WSJ observes that “one scandal of our age is the attempt to sell the public on the narrative of climate catastrophe. It’s been fed by the press and overheated political and scientific claims that sometimes are phony.” (12-10-2025).
None of this happened!
Climate change is indisputable. Our climate has always changed including long before man was ever on the earth! Earth’s temperature occurs in certain rhythmic cycles and did so long before humans appeared on earth, approximately 200,000 years ago. So, honest science reflects that humans are not the principal cause of climate change.
“While there is an increase in carbon dioxide, that increase is not being driven largely by human industry … 90% of global warming is occurring in the ocean causing the internal heat of the waters to increase.” So, the oceans are “warming from underneath. The glaciers are melting from underneath.” (Gregg Braden, Geologist, Computer Scientist, expert in Applied Earth Sciences).
Recall the doomsday scenarios: Acid rain would deforest large swaths of the globe; there would be another ice age; the ozone would disappear; global warming would melt the world’s glaciers. Now, the “world is on fire!” but the percentage of the globe that burns each year has been declining since 2001. (B. Lomborg, Wall St. Journal, 8-1-23).
None of it has happened.
I think Gabriella Hoffman summarizes the Trump environmental action best:
“Carbon dioxide is only 0.04% of the atmosphere and is essential for plant life. … This is a necessary course correction, and returns power back to Congress. We applaud the Trump administration for repealing this flawed rule and putting science—not politics—first.”
Amen.
Shreveport attorney, Royal Alexander, worked in D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 8 years for two different Members of Congress from Louisiana.