The move eliminates ‘endangerment finding’, the scientific basis for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and public health safeguards
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced today the shattering of the landmark “endangerment finding,” a cornerstone of scientific research that has guided U.S. climate action for nearly two decades. The EPA’s unconscionable action to revoke the 17-year-old finding dismantles the legal and scientific foundation that allows the U.S. government to regulate the emissions from greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This decision will undermine pollution standards from sources, including vehicles and dirty power plants that were built on that finding, and put Americans’ health and safety at risk.
This unprecedented move threatens pollution standards that have protected Americans from harmful emissions and decades of progress in addressing climate change. Trump’s EPA continues its aggressive approach to rolling back pollution regulations. This week, it is the “endangerment finding”; next week, additional rollbacks are expected for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, coal ash ponds, and more in the coming weeks and months. Trump and his allies may continue to dismiss climate change as a hoax, but ignoring the everyday impacts of a warming planet will make Americans more vulnerable to higher costs, extreme weather events, and adverse health impacts.
Quentin Scott, Federal Policy Director for Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), released the following statement:
“As expected, the Trump Administration continues to be in the pockets of big polluters and ignores the impacts of climate change on Americans’ lives. The ‘endangerment finding’ is rooted in credible scientific evidence and well-established legal underpinnings. Relying on junk science to shatter the ‘endangerment finding’ will cost Americans in dirtier air, more preventable disease and deaths, and a higher cost of living to mitigate downstream impacts of pollution. Once again, Trump fails to deliver for the American people while enriching himself and his allies. Congress must step in and use the Congressional Review Act to reverse this unconscionable decision.”
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Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. Founded in 2002, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC and beyond.
