Inside the "biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history"

What It Covers

The EPA repeals its 2009 endangerment finding that classified greenhouse gases as public health threats, eliminating regulatory authority over emissions. The administration claims this saves $1.3 trillion in costs, but experts warn of hidden expenses from climate damage, regulatory uncertainty, and reduced vehicle efficiency that may offset any savings.

Key Questions Answered

• •Inflation trajectory: Consumer prices rose 2.4% annually in January 2024, down from 2.7% in December and 9% peak in 2022. Core inflation excluding food and energy reached 2.5%, the lowest since 2021, though the Fed's preferred gauge remains stuck at 3%, above the 2% target rate.
• •Tariff impact timing: Tariff-related price increases peaked in early 2024 and will decline through year-end as companies complete cost absorption. Appliances, furniture, and new cars show sharp January increases, but forecasts predict only 0.5 percentage points of tariff inflation versus earlier 1.0 percentage point predictions.
• •Concierge medicine growth: Primary care doctors charging annual fees of $2,000 or more nearly doubled between 2018 and 2023. Doctors reduce patient rosters from 3,800 to 600 patients, enabling hour-long appointments versus ten-minute visits, but this intensifies the existing primary care shortage in rural areas and for lower-income patients.
• •AI weather forecasting capability: Deep learning models trained on government weather data now outperform traditional supercomputer forecasts, particularly for tracking hurricanes and cold fronts. These models cost significantly less to run once trained and could extend reliable forecasting from the current seven to ten days out to potentially one month ahead.
• •Regulatory uncertainty costs: Removing emissions regulations creates investment hesitation as companies make ten to twenty year decisions based on expected future policy, not current rules. This regulatory whiplash delays cost-saving investments in efficient technology, even as new clean energy becomes cheaper than coal, potentially eliminating projected consumer savings from deregulation.