Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has decided to pretend that the health risks caused by greenhouse gases don’t exist—but the Fox News chyron beneath him told a different story.
“EPA is proposing to rescind the 2009 Obama EPA Endangerment Finding to eliminate all of the greenhouse gas emissions regulations that followed,” Zeldin said during an interview on Fox News Tuesday, “including electric vehicle mandates, which amounts to a trillion dollars’ worth of savings.”
In December 2009, the EPA published an Endangerment Finding that stated that the current and projected concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” Greenhouse gases trap outgoing infrared heat within the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in global warming.
Just a few months ago, Zeldin couldn’t even say whether carbon was a pollutant (spoiler alert, it is). Now he is primed to remove the finding that set the standard for multiple industries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.
But as independent journalist Aaron Rupar pointed out on X, Zeldin’s announcement was rendered immediately ridiculous by the chyron just beneath him.
As the anti-science flunkie in charge of the EPA happily announced his plan to strip greenhouse gas regulations, an “Extreme Heat” warning appeared in the bottom right corner. The chyron below him displayed the “Hottest Temps Now” from different cities across the country: 102 degrees in Arizona; 100 degrees in Florida; 100 degrees in Georgia; 99 degrees in California.
Zeldin: “EPA is proposing to rescind the 2009 Obama EPA endangerment finding to eliminate all of the greenhouse gas emissions regulations that followed.” pic.twitter.com/2e3nSltX0o
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 29, 2025
This week, a record-breaking heat wave struck the eastern United States, with excessive heat advisories being issued everywhere from Florida to New York. Over the last decade, heat-related deaths have doubled in the U.S.
The Obama-era Endangerment Finding that Zeldin would like to repeal directly linked greenhouse gas emissions to widespread changes in extreme temperatures around the world—adding that rising temperatures would likely turn deadly.
“The impact on mortality and morbidity associated with increases in average temperatures, which increase the likelihood of heat waves, also provides support for a public health endangerment finding,” the report stated, noting that “heat is already the leading cause of weather related deaths in the United States.”