The administration’s rollback of bedrock EPA policy on climate change undermines the government’s ability to address greenhouse gas emissions in cars and trucks.

A recent end to EPA’s “endangerment finding,” the scientific determination that a rapidly warming climate requires the EPA to step in to protect human health, leaves the U.S. without effective fuel economy standards on the books, experts told the New York Times. Transportation is the U.S.’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions that are worsening droughts, heatwaves, floods, and sea level rise.

The Trump Administration’s Feb. 12 rules follows other recent efforts to bypass fuel economy standards. In December, the administration proposed lowering fuel economy standards from 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031 to 34.5 50 miles per gallon – less stringent standards than in China, India, Japan, and the European Union, the outlet reported.

In July as part of the Republican-controlled Congress’s “Big, Beautiful” bill, lawmakers lowered fines against automakers for fuel efficiency standard violations to $0.