Public health, green groups sue EPA over repeal of landmark finding on climate change

WASHINGTON– A coalition of health and environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, challenging its decision last week that revoked a scientific finding that has been the central basis of U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.

A rule finalized Thursday by the EPA reverses a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatened public health and welfare. The Obama-era findings provide the legal basis for nearly all Clean Air Act climate regulations for motor vehicles, power plants and other sources of planet-warming pollution.

The repeal eliminates all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks and could lead to a broader rollback of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, experts say.

The legal challenge, filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asserts that the EPA’s reversal of the endangerment finding is unlawful. The 2009 findings support common-sense measures to reduce climate pollution, including that from cars and trucks, according to the lawsuit. The clean vehicle standards imposed by the Biden administration were expected to “deliver the largest reduction in U.S. carbon pollution in history, save lives and save Americans hard-earned money on gasoline,” the coalition said in its filing.

After nearly two decades of scientific evidence supporting the 2009 findings, “the agency cannot credibly claim that all of its work is now incorrect,” said Brian Lynk, senior attorney at Environmental Law. & Policy Center.

“This reckless and legally untenable decision creates immediate uncertainty for businesses, ensures protracted legal battles, and undermines the stability of federal climate regulations,” Lynk said.

The case was brought by groups including the American Public Health Association, the American Lung Association, the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment and Physicians for Social Responsibility, as well as environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Conservation Law Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.

The suit named EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and the EPA itself as defendants.

President Donald Trump said in announcing the repeal that it was “the most significant deregulatory action in American history, by far,” while Zeldin called the endangerment finding “the holy grail of federal overregulation.”

Discovery of the threat “led to multibillion-dollar regulations that strangled entire parts of the U.S. economy, including the U.S. auto industry,” Zeldin said. “The Obama and Biden administrations used it to push into existence a left-wing wish list that included costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates, and other demands that attacked consumer choice and affordability. »

Environmental groups described the move as the largest attack in U.S. history on federal authority charged with combating climate change. The evidence supporting the endangerment finding has only grown stronger in the 17 years since it was approved, they said.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is legally required to limit emissions of any air pollutant that causes or contributes to “air pollution that may reasonably be expected to endanger the public health or welfare.” In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are “air pollutants” within the meaning of the Clean Air Act and has requested that EPA determine, based on scientific data, whether this pollution endangers human health and welfare. The EPA made this decision in 2009, which led to new standards for vehicles. He used this finding to publish other standards.

The EPA’s own analysis found that eliminating vehicle standards would raise gasoline prices and force Americans to spend more on fuel, advocates said.

The EPA’s repeal of the endangerment finding, along with the elimination of safeguards to limit vehicle emissions, “marks a complete abandonment of the agency’s mission to protect human health and its legal obligations under the Clean Air Act,” said Dr. Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“This shameful and dangerous action… is rooted in lies, not facts, and is completely at odds with the public interest and the best available science,” Goldman said. Heat emissions and global average temperatures are increasing – mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels – contributing to a growing human and economic toll across the world, she said.