{"id":292321,"date":"2026-02-19T21:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/292321\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T21:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:33:15","slug":"environmental-groups-sue-trumps-epa-over-repeal-of-landmark-climate-finding-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/292321\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental groups sue Trump\u2019s EPA over repeal of landmark climate finding | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a dozen health and environmental justice non-profits have sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)<\/a> over its revocation of the legal determination that underpins US federal climate regulations.<\/p>\n

Filed in Washington<\/a> DC circuit court, the lawsuit challenges the EPA\u2019s rollback of the \u201cendangerment finding\u201d, which states that the buildup of heat-trapping pollution in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare and has allowed the EPA to limit those emissions from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources since 2009. The rollback was widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The suit was brought by the American Public Health<\/a> Association, the American Lung Association, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and 11 other public health and environmental organizations. The lawsuit was filed by green legal organizations Clean Air Task Force and Earthjustice and it names the EPA and the agency\u2019s administrator, Lee Zeldin, as defendants.<\/p>\n

\u201cEPA\u2019s repeal of the endangerment finding and safeguards to limit vehicle emissions marks a complete dereliction of the agency\u2019s mission to protect people\u2019s health and its legal obligation under the Clean Air Act,\u201d said Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO at the Union of Concerned Scientists, another one of the groups behind the lawsuit. \u201cThis shameful and dangerous action by the Trump administration<\/a> and EPA administrator Zeldin is rooted in falsehoods, not facts, and is at complete odds with the public interest and the best available science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week Donald Trump<\/a> hailed rescinding the finding as \u201cthe single largest deregulatory action in American history\u201d, and Zeldin said the Obama and Biden administrations had used it \u201cto steamroll into existence a leftwing wishlist of costly climate policies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about criticism and potential legal challenges to the move last week, an EPA spokesperson said: \u201cThe Trump EPA is following the law, ending the bogus overreach of previous administrations done by agenda-driven climate zealots.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked on Thursday about critics\u2019 environmental and health concerns about the rollback, Trump said: \u201cI\u2019d tell them, don\u2019t worry about it because it has nothing to do with public health.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, the EPA said it \u201ccarefully considered and reevaluated the legal foundation\u201d of the endangerment finding and revoked it to comply with the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike our predecessors, the Trump EPA is committed to following the law exactly as it is written and as Congress intended \u2013 not as others might wish it to be,\u201d an agency spokesperson said. \u201cCongress never intended to give EPA authority to impose GHG regulations for cars and trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Georges Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association, noted on a press call on Thursday that the endangerment finding had been repeatedly upheld amid previous challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cEPA\u2019s authority to regulate greenhouse gas has already been confirmed by the supreme court nearly two decades ago and has constantly been reaffirmed by the courts,\u201d he said. \u201cThe science is clear here. The endangerment findings [are] based on decades of scientific consensus that climate change is real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early on Thursday, 18 young people, aged 1 to 22, from across the US filed a separate petition challenging the rescission of the endangerment finding. They were represented by non-profit legal organizations Our Children\u2019s Trust \u2013 which scored a landmark win in a constitutional climate lawsuit in Montana in 2023 \u2013 and Public Justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EPA\u2019s repeal of the endangerment finding violates my first amendment right to practice my faith and my fifth amendment rights to life and liberty,\u201d said Elena Venner, the lead petitioner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a dozen health and environmental justice non-profits have sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-292321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}