The Environmental Protection Agency has done what few in Washington dare: confront a regulatory cornerstone long treated as political scripture. In announcing its intent to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding on greenhouse gases, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has not only taken a dagger to the heart of the Obama-era climate regime, he has taken a principled stand for limited government, energy freedom, and statutory fidelity.

The Endangerment Finding, issued in December 2009, claimed that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases “endanger public health and welfare.” That conclusion served as the legal foundation for the EPA’s sweeping authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. It was always a stretch, both scientifically and statutorily. Congress never intended for the Clean Air Act – enacted in 1970 to combat smog and toxic air pollutants – to serve as a climate change statute. That authority was conjured by bureaucratic and activist courts, not by elected lawmakers.

By rescinding the Endangerment Finding, the EPA has begun to unwind what has become an economically suffocating climate command-and-control regime. That regime has imposed multi-trillion-dollar burdens on American consumers, automakers, truckers, energy producers, and small businesses – while achieving negligible impact on global temperatures. In the process, it has distorted market signals,........

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