A coalition of states and cities, including Maine, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its February reversal of a 2009 declaration that has served as the basis for the government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Known as the Endangerment Finding, this 2009 declaration states that the “current and projected concentrations” of greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.”
This stemmed from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases are a category of air pollutant covered by the Clean Air Act, opening the door for the EPA to determine under section 202(a) if they can reasonably be understood to pose a threat to “public health or welfare.”
By repealing the agency’s prior declaration, the federal government has significantly less authority to promulgate and enforce climate-related regulations.
Filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Thursday’s lawsuit argues that the Administration’s decision to rescind the finding represents an abandonment of the federal government’s responsibility to the American people.
“Instead of helping Americans face our new reality, the Trump administration has chosen denial, repealing critical protections that are foundational to the federal government’s response to climate change,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“Climate change is real, and it’s already affecting our residents and our economy,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Joy Campbell. “When the federal government abandons the law and the science, everyday people suffer the consequences.”
In total, 24 states, ten cities, and five counties have signed onto the lawsuit.
Aside from Maine, New York, and Massachusetts, the lawsuit was also joined by Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection also signed onto the case, along with the cities of Albuquerque, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, alongside five counties in California, Colorado, Texas, and Washington state.
Spokeswoman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brigit Hirsch said the latest lawsuit was “not about the law or the merits of any argument.” Instead, she contended, the plaintiffs “are clearly motivated by politics.”
According to Hirsch, the EPA “carefully considered and reevaluated the legal foundation” of the 2009 finding in light of recent court decisions. Hirsch specifically pointed toward a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that limited how the clean air law could be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, the Associated Press reported.
Last summer, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey made clear his dissatisfaction with the Trump Administration’s efforts to rescind the declaration, calling the move an attempt to “def[y] science, law, and reality.”
“The science is clear that greenhouse gas emissions cause significant harm to public health and welfare, which is increasingly borne out in Maine by impacts including sea level rise, extreme storms, flooding, and disrupted coastal habitats and fisheries,” he said, responding to the federal government’s announcement of its intent.
“We have worked to hold the administration to responsible climate action and we will continue to advocate for regulation that confronts the climate crisis,” Attorney General Frey added.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has highlighted the positive impact that this move can be expected to have on the American economy, criticizing existing regulations as detrimental to the country’s financial well-being.
“They created this endangerment finding and then they are able to put all these regulations on vehicles, on airplanes, on stationary sources, to basically regulate out of existence, in many cases, a lot of segments of our economy,” he said. “And it cost Americans a lot of money.”
President Donald Trump (R) called the move “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far” while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin referred to the endangerment finding as “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach,” according to the Associated Press.
It is expected that this latest lawsuit will likely come before the Supreme Court.
