Crypto News: EPA’s $1.4 trillion potential costs

The Trump administration argues that its decision to scrap a swath of climate regulations will save Americans money. The EPA's own cost-benefit assessment points to steep costs that may outweigh the savings.

Today's newsletter delves into the EPA's analysis and how those numbers were modeled. Also, UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband on his deal with California Governor Gavin Newsom and the latest on the wildfire in Oklahoma.

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Overlooked costs

By Zahra Hirji

When President Donald Trump on Feb. 12 announced the "single largest deregulation in American history" — the repeal of climate emissions standards for all vehicles and the key scientific determination underpinning them, in one swoop — he said it would save Americans $1.3 trillion.

But the administration's own analyses, found in the official rulemaking published Wednesday in the Federal Register, show a more nuanced picture. The climate rollbacks also come with costs, ranging from hundreds of billions of dollars on the low end to more than $1.4 trillion on the high end — an amount that exceeds the projected savings.

US President Donald Trump, left, and Lee Zeldin, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, at the White House on Feb. 12, 2026, to announce the rescinding of the endangerment finding, a landmark scientific determination that greenhouse gases are harmful to human health.

The revoking of the so-called endangerment finding, a legal recognition that greenhouse gases harm human health, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the administration's largest climate rollback to date. It comes on the heels of deep cuts over the past year to the agency's staffing, programming, research and grants tied to climate and other environmental work.

"Rescinding the 2009 endangerment finding means real dollars back in the pockets of American families and unleashing consumer choice," said EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch. She noted that the analyses took into account "different projected fuel prices from the US Energy Information Administration, different estimates of consumer valuations of fuel savings, different discount rates."

The agency modeled out both the possible savings and costs of the policy change to calculate the net monetary impact under eight different scenarios. The $1.3 trillion estimate, which has been repeated by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and touted in published materials, represents only part of the agency's monetary analysis — the estimated savings from now through 2055 — and only in half of the scenarios.

"The way that they've approached this is to ignore any of the costs that come out of this rule and just focus on the two items that are savings for consumers," said Amanda Levin, a director of policy analysis at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Read the full story and subscribe to Bloomberg News for breaking news on US climate policy.

Long-term impacts

"It's going to take years, if not decades, to rebuild"

Justin Chen

President of the EPA agency union American Federation of Government Employees Council 238

Current and former staffers say it's the rapid loss of EPA staff that will be felt the longest.

New partnership

By Jess Shankleman

UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband shrugged off criticism from US President Donald Trump over his climate deal with California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband (left) and California state governor Gavin Newsom sign a clean energy agreement at the Foreign Office in London. Picture date: Monday February 16, 2026. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)

The agreement announced earlier this week in London called for the British government and California to expand their cooperation to promote clean energy, fighting climate change and protecting the environment. But Trump said it was "inappropriate" for the UK to make an agreement directly with a US state.

"I obviously don't agree with that because we were elected to stand up for the British national interest," Miliband said in an interview at the International Energy Agency ministerial meeting Wednesday.

Critics argue the UK's green pivot has gone too far, and at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump mocked Europe's push for more wind generation — describing turbines as "losers." Democratic governor Newsom, on the other hand, has sought to reassure European allies that Trump — who has derided climate change as a "hoax" — is "temporary."

Read the full story.

Wildfire threat

By Lauren Rosenthal

A fast-moving wildfire in the Oklahoma panhandle doubled in size as it pressed into Kansas while winds threatened to shift and raise fire risks across West Texas and New Mexico.

The Ranger Road Fire had consumed more than 283,000 acres in Oklahoma and Kansas as of Thursday, nearly 20 times the size of the island of Manhattan. In all, more than 300,000 acres have burned in Oklahoma this week as temperatures soared roughly 15F (8C) above average and rock-bottom humidity dried out grasses and brush.

Wildfire smoke near Beaver, Oklahoma, on Feb. 17, 2026. Source: Oklahoma Forestry Services/AP Photo — Wildfire smoke near Beaver, Oklahoma, on Feb. 17, 2026.

Oklahoma officials had received 33 reports of fires and hotspots spanning nearly two dozen counties, including a fast-growing fire that briefly prompted evacuations south of the Ranger Road blaze. Though the state is expected to see some relief Friday as temperatures drop and humidity creeps higher, winds are forecast to pick up across far West Texas. Two fires outside the city of Amarillo have already consumed more than 31,000 acres.

Drought conditions have plagued much of Texas and the Great Plains this winter despite recent snow and rains. Over the next week, the region is expected to remain drier and warmer than normal, according to the US Climate Prediction Center.

Read the full story.

More from Green

President Donald Trump's $33 billion deal with Japan to build the largest US gas power project in Ohio hasn't secured binding commitments, still needs to lock in equipment suppliers and was a complete surprise to the state's regulator and grid operator.

Japan's trade ministry and local media identified SoftBank Group Corp. and Panasonic Holdings Corp. as among at least 13 Japanese companies or organizations that are tied to the project. However, none of those entities confirmed they had signed anything binding or committed investments, when contacted by Bloomberg News.

A White House official said that since the project was just recently launched, most suppliers are not under contract yet, but they will be as it progresses.

Read the full story.

TotalEnergies is fighting a lawsuit in Paris that seeks to block one of Europe's top oil and gas producers from starting new fossil fuel exploration and extraction projects.

The UK's troubled statistics body is pulling back from surveys on greenhouse gas emissions under plans to reduce the number of non-essential releases it produces after a collapse the quality of key economic indicators.

This week's Zero

For years, a major drag on Ethiopia's budget has been subsidizing gasoline for consumers.

In 2024, Ethiopia did something revolutionary. It banned the import of fossil fuel cars and cut tariffs on electric vehicles. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with producer Oscar Boyd and Ethiopia-based EV entrepreneur Yuma Sasaki about the EV boom that ensued and what that tells us about the growth of EVs in rapidly developing countries like Ethiopia.

Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.