The EPA just delivered news that millions of fed-up American drivers have been waiting for: Automatic start-stop technology is no longer being propped up by federal regulation.

On February 12, 2026, President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced what the administration is calling the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. The move scraps the Obama-era 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding and wipes out federal greenhouse-gas standards for vehicles dating back to model year 2012.

‘Mechanically, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Constant restarts accelerate wear on starter motors — even reinforced ones.’

For everyday drivers, the practical consequence is simple and satisfying: The regulatory credits that encouraged automakers to jam start-stop systems into vehicles are gone.

‘Universally hated’

Zeldin didn’t mince words, calling start-stop an “almost universally hated” feature — an “Obama switch” that makes your engine shut off at every red light. Trump echoed the sentiment, blasting the policy as a regulatory disaster that drove up prices and forced unwanted technology on consumers. Even the EPA’s own announcement acknowledged what drivers have been saying for years: A feature that kills your engine at stops and jolts it awake again was never embraced voluntarily — it was incentivized.

For years, automakers chased roughly a 1-mile-per-gallon compliance credit tied to start-stop systems. On paper, it helped meet greenhouse-gas targets. In the real world, the fuel savings were often negligible outside of ideal lab conditions. Still, the feature spread everywhere — from sedans to SUVs to trucks — not because buyers demanded it, but because it was the cheapest way to check a regulatory box.

Consumers got the irritation. Automakers got the credit.

‘Disaster waiting to happen’

I asked ASE Master Technician Greg Damon what start-stop really does under the hood. His answer was blunt:

Mechanically, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Constant restarts accelerate wear on starter motors — even reinforced ones. Batteries cycle harder and require more expensive replacements. Engine components face repeated stress, especially during warm restarts when lubrication isn’t instantaneous. In shops, mechanics see higher failure rates, specialized repairs, and higher bills. All of that complexity and cost to chase a single MPG on a spreadsheet.

Is 1 MPG worth higher sticker prices, increased maintenance costs, and shorter component life?

Drivers have already answered that question. Many disable the system every time they start the car — if the manufacturer even allows it. Some vehicles require a ritual button press; others hide any permanent shutoff entirely. Subaru owners, in particular, have flooded forums with complaints about hesitation and drivability issues. Reviews and social media tell the same story: This isn’t progress. It’s punishment.

RELATED: Sick of your ‘eco-friendly’ car turning off at every red light? So is Trump’s EPA head

VCG/Getty Images

No incentive

After the ruling, I contacted major automakers. Their responses were identical — carefully scripted statements saying they would “review their strategy” if regulations changed. Well, the regulations have changed. Loudly. Publicly. And without ambiguity. With compliance credits vaporized, the financial incentive disappears. Expect manufacturers to quietly phase out start-stop or finally offer true, set-it-and-forget-it disable options.

The broader implications are enormous. The Trump administration projects more than $1.3 trillion in total regulatory relief, with per-vehicle compliance costs dropping by an estimated $2,400. Lower vehicle prices ripple through the entire economy. As Zeldin put it, the move restores consumer choice and eases cost-of-living pressure by removing mandates that distorted the market.

Other Clean Air Act rules governing traditional tailpipe pollutants remain in place. Emissions are not unregulated. What died here is the prescriptive, heavy-handed system that rewarded gimmicks like start-stop instead of genuine engineering improvements. Automakers now have room to pursue real efficiency — better engines, smarter hybrids, lighter materials, and improved aerodynamics — without sacrificing reliability or driver satisfaction.

Win for aftermarket

The automotive aftermarket wins too. An industry supporting more than 330,000 American jobs can breathe easier without constant compliance pressure steering vehicles away from serviceable, long-term ownership.

This is a win for common sense. Start-stop survived because Washington subsidized it, not because Americans wanted it. Without regulatory crutches, the feature faces the only test that matters: voluntary consumer demand. And the answer has always been clear.

If you’ve ever muttered under your breath at a red light while your engine shut off — then lurched back to life — this one’s for you. The era of government-mandated automotive irritation just took a fatal hit.

​Lifestyle, Epa, Start-stop, Lee zeldin, Auto industry, Donald trump, Ev mandate, Emissions standards, Align cars 

An LGBTQ activist tried to tear down the U.S. flag at the Stonewall National Monument during an event Thursday where officials returned a Pride flag removed by the Trump administration.

The Pride flag was removed on Tuesday from the monument in New York City that commemorated a riot against police by gay men in the ’60s.

‘The way the whole thing went down was pretty dramatic. … Gays have a sense of flair and drama.’

The crowd chanted, “Take it down!” and “Burn the American flag!” according to a USA Today report. Others chanted, “We will not be erased!”

Local officials did not give speeches and left immediately after returning the Pride flag.

The report said activists were upset that the flag had been put on a flagpole that was lower than the U.S. flag, so they took both down and used zip-ties to raise the Pride flag above the U.S. flag.

“We are reclaiming our space. It’s reclaiming our people; it’s reclaiming our culture,” one supporter said to WCBS-TV. “The flag has so much meaning behind it. The colors represent the diversity of our community. These are things you can’t take away from the community, which is why it’s so important for us to raise it again.”

“The way the whole thing went down was pretty dramatic,” said another attendee named Shep Wahnon. “Gays have a sense of flair and drama.”

Chloe Elentari, a transgender woman, told USA Today that the Trump administration was scapegoating transgender people in order to divert attention away from the Jeffrey Epstein files.

President Donald Trump had ordered all flags aside from the U.S. flag to be removed from federal buildings unless they were specifically authorized.

RELATED: Officials at ‘Latinx’ LGBTQ+ center are outraged that months-long fecal attacks are not an arrestable offense

The Stonewall National Monument was established in 2016 by President Barack Obama to recognize the riot as a milestone in the LGBTQ movement.

Activists were similarly angered in Feb. 2025 when the Trump administration removed transgender and lesbian references in the sign of the monument.

“This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals,” organizers said at the time, “especially transgender women of color — who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights.”

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​Pride flag at stonewall monument, Lgbtq activists burn us flag, Trump orders pride flag down, Stonewall national monument, Politics 

A U.S. law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told Reuters that an Arizona sheriff is blocking FBI access to key evidence surrounding Nancy Guthrie’s abduction and that it’s hampering the federal agency’s ability to assist in the probe.

The FBI asked Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos for physical evidence in the case — including a glove and DNA from the home of the 84-year-old victim — to be processed at the FBI’s national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, but Nanos insisted on using a private lab in Florida instead, the official told Reuters.

‘It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute.’

While Reuters said Nanos didn’t respond to its requests for comment, the outlet noted that Nanos said in a late Thursday interview with Tucson television station KVOA-TV that the FBI agreed with his decision to send newly discovered evidence to the lab, which has worked with his office for years.

However, the U.S. law enforcement official noted to Reuters that move is delaying the FBI’s ability to assist in the case.

Still, Nanos denied the allegations, Reuters said, and called them “not even close to the truth” in the KVOA interview.

“Actually the FBI just wanted to send the one or two they found by the crime scene. … I said, ‘No, why do that? Let’s just send them all to where all the DNA exist, all the profiles and the markers exist.’ They agreed, makes sense,” Nanos told KVOA, according to Reuters.

More from Reuters:

In a daily press update released earlier in the day, the sheriff’s department said investigators had “recovered several items of evidence, including gloves,” adding that all viable evidence is submitted for analysis.” The agency did not elaborate.

The Pima County sheriff has primary jurisdiction over the case, and FBI assistance must be officially requested by the county, otherwise the FBI is legally precluded from taking part in the investigation. The official said the county has spent some $200,000 so far to send evidence in the Guthrie case to the Florida lab.

“It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute,” the official told Reuters earlier Thursday, citing unspecified “earlier setbacks” in the investigation.

RELATED: How the FBI actually got the Google Nest footage of Nancy Guthrie’s alleged kidnapper

The official added to Reuters that “it’s clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology. Anything less only prolongs the Guthrie family’s grief and the community’s wait for justice.”

More from Reuters:

Signs of friction between the FBI and sheriff’s department emerged as the search for Nancy Guthrie stretched into its 12th day, as investigators intensified their search for clues in the presumed kidnapping for ransom.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen on January 31 when family dropped her off at her home following an evening dinner with them, and relatives reported her missing the following day, authorities said.

The sheriff has said the elder Guthrie had extremely limited mobility and could not have wandered off far from home unassisted, leading investigators to conclude early on that she had been abducted by force.

In addition, officials said last week that DNA tests confirmed traces of blood found on Guthrie’s front porch were Guthrie’s blood, Reuters reported, adding that law enforcement and family members have described Guthrie as frail health-wise and requiring daily medication to survive.

What’s more, Reuters also noted that at least two purported ransom notes have surfaced since Guthrie vanished — and both of them initially were delivered to news outlets and set two deadlines that have since lapsed.

However, Reuters noted that no proof of life is known to have surfaced following Guthrie’s abduction.

Savannah Guthrie, 54 — co-anchor of the popular NBC News morning show “Today” — has posted several video messages with her brother and sister that appeal to their mother’s captors for her return, Reuters said.

The siblings even state a willingness to meet ransom demands in the clips, Reuters added.

In addition, authorities released doorbell camera video at Guthrie’s home near Tucson showing an armed prowler in a ski mask and gloves trying to disable the camera, Reuters said, adding that the clip was recorded around the time that Guthrie was believed to have been taken from her residence by force.

More from Reuters:

Investigators were likely seeking to bring facial recognition analysis to bear on the video to produce a composite image of a suspect that they can run against a national database that includes all U.S. drivers with Real ID licenses, according to a former FBI agent.

Law enforcement officials on Thursday said a black latex glove found discarded on a roadside was recovered and undergoing forensic examination.

The FBI on Thursday doubled the reward offered for information leading to the location of Nancy Guthrie, or arrest and conviction of a suspect in her abduction, to $100,000.

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​Nancy guthrie, Savannah guthrie, Abduction, Fbi, Pima county sheriff’s department, Chris nanos, Today show, Crime 

A viral video purporting to show an arson attack on a facility rumored to be bought for federal detentions led to an outraged statement from the Kansas City mayor against ICE.

The video shows a woman trying to light a facility on fire Thursday after the building was rumored to have been sold to the Department of Homeland Security for a future detention center in Kansas City.

‘I am outraged by federal efforts to place 10,000 human beings in cages inside distribution warehouses in Kansas City.’

The woman has not been caught, and the motivation for the attack is unclear.

Ironically, the firm that owns the building said it was not going through with the sale to the federal government on Thursday.

“As negotiations concluded, we learned the purchasing party was the U.S. Government,” the company said. “Over the course of the building sale process, we determined that the terms no longer met our fiduciary requirements for a timely closing. Therefore, we chose not to move forward.”

As a KMBC-TV reporter was trying to report about the decision, his camera crew recorded the woman trying to light the building on fire.

When the mayor was asked about the attack, he expressed outrage at ICE and offered a half-hearted statement against the woman.

“I am outraged by federal efforts to place 10,000 human beings in cages inside distribution warehouses in Kansas City or anywhere in our country,” Mayor Quinton Lucas wrote in a statement on social media. “I’ll trust the courts, our local prosecutors, and law enforcement in Kansas City to handle the offender.”

Some critics of the mayor pointed out that he had promoted the outrage against the facility in a statement on the same day as the attack.

RELATED: ‘Quite literally insane’: DHS responds to new scheme from LA activists to warn illegal aliens about ICE

“I am aware of a recent release from a Kansas City firm regarding a distribution facility in South Kansas City that has been rumored as a target for a mass ICE detention encampment of up to 10,000 persons,” he said in a post Thursday.

“While Kansas City welcomes any news suggesting the halting of a planned conversion of a warehouse for goods and products into a human encampment,” he added, “I will continue with our legislative, legal efforts, and community engagement to ensure no warehouse or similar facility in Kansas City or nearby is converted to a mass encampment warehouse of persons that is offensive to the dignity and human rights of those who would be detained within it.”

KMBC has since posted the entire raw footage of the woman trying to burn down the building.

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​South kansas city ice facility, Woman burns ice building, Anti-ice arson attack, Camera crew captures arson attack, Politics 

On Tuesday, February 10, during a heated House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar (Mich.) told U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, “You better hope you get pardoned.”

“That’s a threat,” says Glenn Beck, who was deeply disturbed by Thanedar’s words.

“He didn’t say, ‘You violated the law, and you should be investigated.’ What he said was, ‘When power changes hands, we’re going to punish you for enforcing the law.’ That distinction is everything,” he warns.

“The moment the enforcement itself becomes criminalized retroactively,” Glenn says, “the rule of law does not merely weaken; it completely flips.”

“The message is no longer, ‘Follow the law.’ The message becomes, ‘Guess who’s going to be in charge later? You better act accordingly,’” he explains. “That is not a democracy. That’s a legitimacy war.”

Thanedar’s threat, he says, is evidence that accelerationism — “the belief that everything needs to be burned down” — is migrating from fringe street movements into the halls of government itself.

In the streets, accelerationism sounds like, “Burn it down,” but in the government, it sounds like, “We’ll deal with you later,” Glenn explains.

“[Thanedar’s threat] is nothing I have ever heard ever in my lifetime in America, and it should chill all of us to the bone,” he says. “When lawmakers openly promise prosecutions after elections, they’re not talking about justice; they’re signaling veto power — the rule by anticipation of punishment.”

Glenn warns that some people are engaging in “casual talk” about “Nuremberg-style trials” that would treat “domestic opponents” as Nazi war criminals deserving execution or lifelong imprisonment after a power shift.

This should terrify everyone, he says.

“Applause for the idea of prosecuting the former regime at every level and anyone who was participating — that means you, that means me, anybody who was on the side of the right — you better look out,” he cautions.

“This is not about one person. This is not about left versus right. This is about something far more corrosive,” Glenn warns.

“The normalization of the idea that power exists to punish the previous holder of power — you’re a banana republic.”

To hear more Glenn’s commentary, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Shri thanedar, Ice agents, Anti ice, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Kristi noem, Blazetv, Blaze media, Banana republic, Annihilationism, Accelerationism