A group of health and environmental organizations filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday, contesting the reversal of a scientific determination crucial for U.S. efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.
The EPA recently issued a rule that rolled back a 2009 government finding known as the endangerment declaration, which concluded that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases pose risks to public health and welfare.
The endangerment finding from the Obama era serves as the legal foundation for most climate regulations under the U.S. Clean Air Act, affecting vehicles, power plants, and other sources of pollution contributing to global warming.
The revocation eliminates all greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and trucks and could lead to a broader rollback of climate regulations for stationary sources like power plants and oil and gas facilities, according to experts.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, argues that the EPA’s decision to rescind the endangerment finding is unlawful.
The 2009 finding endorsed practical measures to reduce climate pollution, especially from vehicles, the legal challenge states. The coalition behind the lawsuit asserts that the clean vehicle standards proposed by the Biden administration were poised to achieve significant reductions in U.S. carbon emissions, saving lives and cutting fuel expenses for Americans.
Following almost two decades of scientific support for the 2009 finding, Brian Lynk, a senior attorney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center, emphasized that the EPA cannot reasonably claim that the scientific basis is now incorrect.
“This irresponsible and legally unsustainable decision introduces immediate uncertainty for businesses, ensures prolonged legal disputes, and destabilizes federal climate regulations,” Lynk remarked.
U.S. President Donald Trump has scrapped an Obama-era legal ruling that has guided American climate action since 2009 in a move climate scientists say will offer impunity to polluters — including the American coal industry that Trump is determined to resurrect.
Trump administration claims the finding `strangled’ business
The lawsuit was filed by a coalition comprising the American Public Health Association, American Lung Association, Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and environmental groups like the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defence Fund, Natural Resources Defence Council, and Sierra Club.
The lawsuit names the EPA and its administrator Lee Zeldin as defendants.
President Donald Trump hailed the repeal as “the largest deregulatory action in American history,” while Zeldin criticized the endangerment finding as a symbol of excessive federal regulation.
Zeldin argued that the endangerment finding led to extensive regulations that stifled various sectors of the U.S. economy, including the auto industry. He claimed that the finding enabled the Obama and Biden administrations to impose costly climate policies and electric vehicle mandates that limited consumer options and affordability.
Environmental organizations condemned the move as the most significant assault on federal authority to address climate change in U.S. history. They emphasized that the evidence supporting the endangerment finding has only strengthened over the past 17 years.