Dive Brief:
- Twelve cities and counties joined a coalition of 24 states on Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s repeal of its 2009 endangerment finding, the underpinning for greenhouse gas regulation under the Clean Air Act.
- “This roll back from the Trump Administration ignores decades of science and settled law,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in a Thursday statement. “It leaves cities like ours to bear the costs of hotter summers, dirtier air, and extreme weather.”
- This is the second lawsuit against the EPA and Administrator Lee Zeldin over the endangerment finding rescission, which takes effect April 20. In February, a coalition of health and environmental groups also petitioned the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for a review of the repeal.
Dive Insight:
The endangerment finding was the direct result of a 2007 Supreme Court decision that confirmed the EPA had the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that endanger public health and welfare. In 2009, the EPA determined that six greenhouse gases met those standards and used the Supreme Court ruling to justify greenhouse gas regulation.
The EPA proposed rescinding the endangerment finding in July, saying in a press release that it would “give power back to the states to make their own decisions” about greenhouse gas regulations.
“This is the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history and will save Americans over $1.3 trillion,” the EPA stated when it finalized its rescission of the finding in February. That number may be misleading, according to FactCheck.org. It includes only the added cost of greater vehicle fuel efficiency over 30 years without including benefits such as lower fuel and maintenance costs.
In September, several mayors organizations, governors, attorneys general and seven cities and counties submitted extensive letters opposing the EPA’s proposal to repeal the endangerment finding. A 26-state coalition led by attorneys general from Kentucky and West Virginia submitted a letter of support for the repeal.
Denver is “already experiencing accelerating climate impacts,” the city said in a Thursday press release. Record-setting heat waves, climate-driven drought, hailstorms, flooding and wildfires “impose growing economic and infrastructure costs on the city,” according to the press release.
“On the day we file this lawsuit, much of Arizona is under an extreme heat warning due to an unprecedented early heatwave that has spiked temperatures over twenty degrees above normal,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement. “It is abundantly clear that greenhouse gas pollution has fueled climate change in our state and across the entire planet.”
Thursday’s lawsuit is co-led by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. In filing the challenge, the City and County of Denver joins the cities of Albuquerque; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Los Angeles; and New York; the counties of Harris, Texas; Martin Luther King Jr., Washington; and Santa Clara, California; the City and County of San Francisco. The coalition also includes the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, as well as the United States Virgin Islands and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
