A coalition of 24 states as well as a dozen cities and counties has sued the Trump administration over its decision to relinquish the government’s legal authority to fight climate change. The lawsuit is likely to be consolidated with a case that 18 environmental, healthcare, and scientific groups already filed in February.
Known as the endangerment finding, the 2009 scientific conclusion that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare is the basis of the government’s legal authority with respect to climate change. In February, the Trump administration formally rejected that finding thereby removing the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate emissions from automobile tailpipes, power plant smokestacks, oil and gas wells, and other sources.
The lawsuit seeks to reinstate the endangerment finding, arguing that the EPA acted illegally when it rescinded it. The suit also seeks to reverse a related EPA move that repealed limits on greenhouse gases produced by motor vehicles.
According to the coalition members, the EPA presented no new science or no new law or legal precedent that would allow it to discard the endangerment finding. Instead, it was entirely an action based on the views of a president who considers global warming to be a hoax and who claims that the planet’s rapid warming is having little effect on humanity.
A landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2007 rejected claims that greenhouse gases do not cause direct harm to Americans. But today’s Supreme Court with its right-wing majority may view matters very differently if and when this case makes its way past the lower courts.
