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San Francisco and Santa Clara County have both signed onto a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt to undo its own authority to regulate vehicle emissions such as carbon dioxide that cause climate change.
The EPA rescinded a landmark study in February known as the Endangerment Finding, which served as the agency’s scientific basis for regulating vehicle emissions.
The finding in 2009 established the agency’s science-based justification to regulate such pollution because it posed a threat to human health and welfare.
Its legal basis was already made clear by a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said the agency had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the federal Clean Air Act.
The suit joined by San Francisco and Santa Clara County includes 25 state attorneys general and 10 other cities and counties. It alleges that the federal agency did not have the authority to rescind the decision, citing that 2007 case.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said the agency had a legal responsibility to regulate pollution that he called an “existential threat to humanity.”
“Rolling back the Endangerment Finding means fewer safeguards against the pollution that drives climate change and worsens air quality,” Chiu said in a statement. “This reckless and illegal move disregards decades of scientific evidence and harms communities already on the front lines of the climate crisis.”
The decision to rescind the study came months after a draft report from a working group under President Donald Trump’s new administration was leaked and drew criticism from scientists, according to Chiu’s office.
Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said the decision would threaten the safety of local residents.
“Our community is already facing the impacts of climate change — including devastating wildfires and deadly heatwaves,” LoPresti said in a statement. “These science-based standards have saved lives and improved air quality for over a decade and rolling them back will deepen the risks to public health and our local economy, both now and for generations to come.”
The suit, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, et al. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, et al., was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It seeks to have the decision to rescind the Endangerment Finding vacated.
The EPA said last month in an announcement of the change that the agency had “reevaluated” the legal basis for the 2009 study.
EPA Director Lee Zeldin said he was proud to oversee what he called the “single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”
“The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans,” Zeldin said in a statement announcing the rescission. “Referred to by some as the ‘Holy Grail’ of the ‘climate change religion,’ the Endangerment Finding is now eliminated.”
This story was written by Thomas Hughes for Bay City News Service.
