From: Watts Up With That

Date: February 9, 2026

Breaking: The Evidence is in: Endangerment Finding was Pre-cooked

From Government Accountability & Oversight

2009 Obama EPA appointees internally called the Endangerment Finding a “decision ready to go,” a “basic fact” and “nothing more than science and common sense”; discussion went straight to timing, suggesting predetermination and a sham notice-and-comment rule making process

Executive Summary: GAO strongly encourages the Environmental Protection Agency to include in any rescission of the Obama Administration’s 2009 Endangerment Finding (EF) the reality, documented below, that it was the product of unalterably closed minds and thereby unlawful. Agency Emails dated as early as two weeks after the January 21, 2009, inauguration, and at least one memorandum, reveal that the political appointees who orchestrated the April 17, 2009 proposal did not in fact deliberate over whether greenhouse gases endanger public health or welfare. Correspondence shows the decision makers calling “endangerment” a “decision ready to go,” a “basic fact” and “nothing more than science and common sense.” Discussions were about the timing of going through various individual motions required to impose a significant notice-and-comment rulemaking, and how to credibly pull that off on a rushed timetable dictated by political anniversaries and a scheduled UN conference in Copenhagen. The EF was the product of a sham regulatory process and violated the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act, and D.C. Circuit precedent. At minimum, any court seeing this evidence should remand the EF to a Special Master for discovery into the Agency’s state of mind and the propriety of the EF which the Agency seeks to rescind.

GAO is reading about increasing concerns over which arguments the Environmental Protection Agency will deploy in rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding (“EF”). The EF is the keystone in the global warming edifice, having precipitated numerous Agency regulations, whether purportedly made necessary due to the EF or simply grounded therein and ‘incorporated by reference. (continue reading)

Breaking: The Evidence is in: Endangerment Finding was Pre-cooked