The EPA Finally Rolled It Back. So Now What Happens to Concrete and CO2?

“Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.”

– King Canute

Back in August we published a post called:

“100 Cokes or 1 Mile: What the EPA’s Rollback Could Mean for Cement.”

At the time it felt theoretical.

Now it’s real.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency officially rescinded the 2009 CO₂ Endangerment Finding.

That was the document that labeled carbon dioxide a “pollutant” under the Clean Air Act.

That one decision was the legal excuse for almost every federal climate rule you’ve seen for the last 15 years.

Vehicle emissions.
Power plants.
Carbon math.
Social cost of carbon.
And eventually the pressure that crept into cement and concrete.

That foundation is gone.

Not weakened.

Gone.

Which means the federal government just took away its own authority to regulate CO₂ like it’s smog or lead paint.

For our industry, that matters a lot more than most people realize.

Because the same logic used to regulate tailpipes was the same logic they planned to use on cement plants, mix designs, and “embodied carbon” requirements.

If CO₂ is not legally a pollutant, it’s pretty hard to justify forcing contractors to redesign concrete around a spreadsheet score.

That’s the shift.

For years the message was simple: Lower CO₂ no matter what.

Use PLC.
Add more SCMs.
Chase EPDs.
Fill out more paperwork.
Hit the carbon number even if the mix is slower, weaker, or riskier.

Nobody ever asked the obvious question: Does this make the concrete better?

Now that question is back on the table.

Because without a federal mandate, embodied carbon becomes optional. Not compliance. Optional.

That changes behavior fast.

When something is required, people do it no matter the cost.

When something is optional, cost and performance suddenly matter again. Funny how that works.

Do owners still ask for low carbon concrete?

Sure. Some will.

Mostly for ESG reports and marketing decks. And incentive remnants of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

But that’s very different than the federal government saying you must do this.

One is optics. The other is law.

Optics disappear quickly when budgets get tight.

Law does not.

States like California and New York will keep pushing their own rules. No surprise there.

And big tech companies building data centers will still talk about net zero because it sounds good on investor calls.

But nationally, the pressure just dropped. A lot.

If you’re a contractor or supplier, this likely means fewer forced mix changes and fewer specs written around carbon theater.

More conversations about what actually matters.

Strength.
Durability.
Schedule.
Risk.
Cost.

You know. Concrete stuff.

Not how many “cokes per mile” your slab supposedly offsets.

The irony is thick. For years we were told cement had to be redesigned to save the planet.

Now the same agency that pushed that story just admitted it doesn’t even have the authority to regulate CO₂ in the first place.

So here we are. Back to common sense.

If a material improves performance, use it.

If it lowers cost and holds up, use it.

If it only looks good in a sustainability report and makes your job harder, maybe stop pretending it’s helping.

This doesn’t mean the CO₂ conversation disappears tomorrow. Specs don’t change overnight.

Consultants will still sell “low carbon strategies.”

And there will still be plenty of virtue signaling. But the legal backbone is gone.

And without that backbone, a lot of this stuff starts to feel optional real quick. Which is exactly where it should have been all along.

We’ll keep watching how owners, states, and spec writers react. But for now, this is the biggest reset the cement and concrete world has seen in a long time.

Less politics. More performance.

That’s a trade I’ll take every time.