On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to roll back the endangerment finding, which underpins the US’s ability to regulate the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The rollback, the result of more than 15 years of work from right-wing special interest groups, represents the most aggressive move against climate regulation in the US to date—and will introduce a lengthy fight that’s almost certain to wind up in front of the Supreme Court.

The move could also create significant legal and regulatory uncertainty for a wide swath of industries, from oil companies fighting state and local climate lawsuits to car companies attempting to plan production of new models in the midst of an ongoing legal fight.

“I don't see any plan, any strategy, any end game,” says Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at the University of Vermont. “I don't see anything from this administration, just fuck everything up as much as you can. You can print that.”

The Clean Air Act mandates that the EPA regulate any type of air pollution that might constitute a hazard to public health and welfare. The endangerment finding is a 2009 ruling that creates a scientific and legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. This finding is the bedrock for every climate-based regulation the agency has issued since, from restrictions on power plants to emissions standards for cars.

The original finding was mandated by a 2007 Supreme Court decision, Massachusetts v. EPA, in a case brought by the state against the Bush administration, challenging it for not taking action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. The Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Even before the endangerment finding officially came into existence, it was already a political football for right-wing interests. Following the Supreme Court decision, the Bush-era EPA sent an email to the White House linking six greenhouse gases to climate change and detailing a number of disparate impacts on pu...