The Environmental Protection Agency generated more than $1.6 trillion in estimated savings through deregulatory actions in the past fiscal year, it said Friday.
At the beginning of the second Trump administration, EPA rules accounted for over $1.3 trillion of roughly $1.8 trillion in added or new cumulative federal regulatory costs, the agency said.
Two actions largely drove the savings: rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding and repealing most of the greenhouse gas requirements for power plants.
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The finding determined that six greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, the basis for regulating vehicle emissions and later power plants and other sources under the Clean Air Act.
The EPA says it rescinded the finding, all vehicle greenhouse gas requirements that followed it and all off-cycle credits.
This is what the EPA called the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history, according to the agency’s new website touting red tape cuts.
The EPA estimated more than $1.3 trillion in compliance cost savings, including roughly $2,400 per new vehicle.
The second major action repealed much of the Biden administration’s greenhouse gas emission requirements for power plants, which the EPA says was the power sector’s largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.
The agency estimated about $310 billion in compliance cost savings over 20 years.
Both rules face court challenges.
Health and environmental groups and a coalition of states have sued in the D.C. Circuit to overturn the rescission of the Endangerment Finding, and health groups sued over the power plant repeal.
The $1.3 trillion reflects avoided vehicle technology and charger costs and is not a net figure, according to FactCheck.org. It does not include health or environmental benefits of the standards.
Congress also played a role in the Trump administration’s deregulatory push.
The EPA said Congress passed, and President Trump signed, six Congressional Review Act resolutions in 2025 that nullified prior EPA actions, including a rule implementing the Inflation Reduction Act’s methane fee and three California vehicle emissions waivers.
The 2025 California waiver resolutions are being contested because the Government Accountability Office had said such waivers are not rules subject to the Congressional Review Act. California and other states sued.
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