California is suing the Trump administration over its decision roll back vulnerability detectionThe US government’s long-standing scientific conclusion that global warming poses a serious threat to Americans, federal officials announced Thursday.
He said. Gen. Rob Bonta, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Air Resources Board are leading a coalition of 25 attorneys general, the governor of Pennsylvania, and 10 cities and counties in a petition against the Environmental Protection Agency, filed in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
The 2009 risk finding was a long-awaited, foundational piece of the nation’s efforts to address climate change, and it underpinned US climate policy — including the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
EPA Director Lee Zeldin hailed the February repeal as “the single largest deregulation in the history of the United States of America.”
The coalition argued that withdrawing the risk finding is a violation of settled law, including clear Supreme Court precedent, and broad scientific consensus about the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on human health and well-being. Reversing it would disrupt the regulatory framework and cause a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change, they said.
The lawsuit will ask the court to reverse the EPA’s repeal and restore greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles. A formal complaint is pending before a judge accepts the request.
“With the unlawful revocation of the Endangerment Finding, President Trump and his EPA have abandoned their most important mission: protecting the health and well-being of the American people,” Bonta said in a statement. “Science doesn’t lie: Climate change and [greenhouse gas] Pollution harms public health and causes devastating and worsening disasters. Our communities have felt the impact of devastating wildfires, watched families flee burning homes, inhaled toxic fumes, and seen entire communities swept away by torrential floods. The President can’t keep his head in the sand – climate change is real and decades of stable science have warned us it’s coming. “
Much of the EPA’s argument for ending the risk finding hinges on whether greenhouse gases qualify as “air pollutants” under the Clean Air Act, making them subject to federal regulations. A landmark 2007 Supreme Court case, Massachusetts vs. EPA, decided it was.
In its decision, the agency said it “carefully reviewed and re-evaluated the statutory basis” for that finding and concluded that the Clean Air Act does not provide the agency with statutory authority to determine vehicle emissions levels, and therefore has no statutory basis for the risk finding or the resulting regulations.
In a statement Thursday, EPA officials reaffirmed that conclusion and said the issue is not the legality or merits of their dispute, but rather political motivation.
“EPA is bound by laws established by Congress, including under s [Clean Air Act],” said the organization [greenhouse gas] car and truck laws.”
The coalition alleges that the revocation of the hazard finding violates the Clean Air Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by relying on the “false assertion” that it has no legal authority to regulate emissions, and ignores compelling and long-standing scientific evidence about the role of emissions on human health and well-being.
It also says that repealing current and future vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards violates the EPA’s statutory obligations and basic responsibility to protect the public from environmental harm.
Repeal of the EPA would not only derail 15 years of regulatory progress, but would also threaten American investment in future technologies and US leadership in transportation and climate change efforts, the coalition said.
“This is what corruption looks like. Donald Trump is breaking laws that protect Americans from climate pollution — all to enrich Big Oil and his rich polluting allies,” Newsom said in a statement. “Employees, families and communities would have to pay, but they are left trapped in the air. No one is above the law in this country, not even the president.”
The EPA also questioned climate science after the discovery of the accident, despite the fact that independent researchers around the world have long concluded that greenhouse gases released by burning gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels are warming the planet and having a negative impact on the climate. Understanding how carbon dioxide warms the atmosphere goes back more than a century.
Among its reasons, the agency’s decision says that reducing greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing vehicles in the US will have only “minor impacts” on global warming and sea level rise. But many experts say reducing those emissions is critical to curbing climate change, as the transportation sector is the largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions in California, accounting for nearly half of the state’s emissions.
The EPA’s proposal to end the risk finding received more than half a million public comments, including environmentalists, scientists, civil rights groups, public health organizations and former EPA officials who oppose the plan. Support for the program often comes from industry groups and regulators who say vehicle standards that depend on vulnerability findings are expensive and unnecessarily burdensome.
Bonta is co-leading the case with the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. They are joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
The coalition includes Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; the cities of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Harris County, Texas.
This marks the 63rd lawsuit in California against the Trump administration since the president returned to office last year.
