Health, green groups challenge EPA move to repeal finding that climate change endangers the public

A coalition of health and environmental organizations sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over its decision to repeal a landmark legal finding that climate change poses a threat to the public.

The groups also challenged the administration’s move to eliminate all climate rules for motor vehicles, which were repealed along with the endangerment finding.

The filing did not lay out their reasons for the challenge, but in public statements, the groups argued that the move threatens public health and the environment.

“EPA [the Environmental Protection Agency] has a duty to consider the well-being and safety of all, and the science is clear; climate change and air pollution threaten everyone’s health,” said Georges Benjamin, chief executive officer of the American Public Health Association, in a written statement. 

“The Trump administration’s reckless decision to rescind the Endangerment Finding and strip the EPA of its primary authority to regulate greenhouse gases will have disastrous consequences for the American people, our health, and our shared future,” said Joanne Spalding, director of the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, in a written statement.

The Trump administration announced it would repeal the finding last week, arguing that  it “severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers.”

The EPA declined to comment further, saying it does not comment on pending litigation.

The endangerment finding underpinned climate regulations, providing a legal basis for such rules.

The Clean Air Act requires the EPA administrator to regulate motor vehicle emissions of any pollutant that “in his judgment cause, or contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”

The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that planet-warming emissions fall under the law’s definition of air pollutants and should be regulated if they’re found to be a threat to public health.

In 2009, the Obama administration determined that they do, in fact, pose a threat, setting up the EPA’s authority to curb climate pollution.

The Trump administration determined, however, that emissions standards motor vehicles “have no material…impact on the global climate change concerns animating this regulatory program.”

Transportation is the largest source of U.S. emissions, making up 28 percent of the nation’s contribution to climate change in 2022. The U.S. currently has the second-most emissions of any country in the world.