Endangerment Finding Repeal Provokes Slew of Litigation Threats

Environmentalists, health groups, and Democratic attorneys general didn’t waste time threatening to sue the Trump administration Thursday over its announced repeal of the endangerment finding that declared greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health.

The repeal goes against federal law and legal precedent, the cluster of groups said. The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to limit emissions from motor vehicles of air pollutants found to endanger health. The US Supreme Court in 2007 determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases fall under that category, said the Natural Resources Defense Council in a statement.

“For the sake of our communities and our future, this illegal action will not go unchallenged,” said Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown (D).

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, all Democrats, also condemned the move in statements released Thursday.

“Two decades ago, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office led the fight to force the federal government to protect the American people from the proven dangers of greenhouse gas emissions, and we will lead once again against the Trump Administration’s attempt to walk away from that responsibility,” Campbell said, referring to the 2007 Supreme Court Massachusetts v. EPA decision.

West Virginia’s Attorney General JB McCuskey (R), on the other hand, praised the move, saying it “will save American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion.”

“This repeal will no doubt be challenged in court, and West Virginia will be on the front lines of this litigation,” McCuskey said in a statement. “Defending EPA’s deregulation is essential to both affordability and the rule of law.”

The American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Alliance for Nurses for Healthy Environments, and Physicians for Social Responsibility also promised to sue in a separate statement Thursday, because “climate change harms health.”

“As organizations committed to protecting public health, we will challenge this unlawful repeal,” the groups said.

“Overturning the Endangerment Finding and eliminating cleaner vehicles rules will result in more air pollution, more frequent and intense disasters like wildfires and floods, and increased risk of diseases, making lung health worse across the U.S.,” said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association.

These calls for litigation came quickly after President Donald Trump announced the rescission of the 2009 determination that has served as the legal foundation for multiple climate rules and lawsuits.

The Energy Department’s now-disbanded Climate Working Group, which wrote the report supporting the revocation of the endangerment finding, was deemed unlawful in January by a Massachusetts federal court because the group met in secret.

The suit was successfully brought by the Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists.

Conservation groups made their outrage over the rescission known in statements warning of imminent legal challenges.

“This cynical and devastating action by the Trump EPA will not go forward without a fight. We will see them in court—and we will win,” said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the NRDC.

“Lee Zeldin and Donald Trump plan to toss out the endangerment finding on blatantly specious legal grounds, attempting to wish away the Supreme Court’s landmark 2007 holding in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act does cover greenhouse gas pollution,” the Sierra Club said in a statement.

The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.