Gov. Gavin Newsom took a swing at the Trump administration Thursday as he announced that California is joining other states in a lawsuit challenging the repeal of the Endangerment Finding, the United States’ legal basis for regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
The lawsuit came after the administration in February made a major break with long-standing scientific consensus, with President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin finalizing steps to remove the legal foundation behind most federal climate rules for vehicles and other pollution sources.
“Pollution is an act of theft. It’s not complicated. Pollution is a subsidy. The polluter gets theirs. All the rest of you, you pay the price. It’s deficit spending,” Newsom said at a news conference at the California Highway Patrol Academy in West Sacramento.
Newsom accused the Trump administration of abusing its power and siding with Big Oil for its own benefit, pointing to reports that Trump asked fossil fuel companies for $1 billion for his presidential campaign.
“This is not about science. Science didn’t change. The administration changed…They want to make pollution great again. That’s what this is about,” Newsom continued.
Attorney General Rob Bonta and California Air Resources Board Chair Lauren Sanchez joined Thursday’s conference, blasting Trump’s “recklessness.”
State air regulators have been locked in two major legal fights with the Trump administration — one over the federal government’s effort to revoke California’s special authority to regulate its own vehicle-emission standards under the Clean Air Act, and another over the administration’s lawsuit against the state’s vehicle-emissions and zero-emission rules.
“Let me be clear, the recklessness repeal of the endangerment finding isn’t just bad policy, it is a direct threat to the safety and wellbeing of every American,” Sanchez said.
“Denying the danger of climate change doesn’t make the fires less destructive or the heat waves less deadly. Look at this week — a heat wave in March shattering records across the West,” she continued. The Golden State is facing unusual heatwaves with scorching temperatures for early March as Southern California saw highs in the 90s and 100s.
Bonta, meanwhile, noted Thursday’s case is the 63rd lawsuit California has filed or joined against the administration since President Trump assumed office last year. Some of those cases include Trump’s new global tariffs, plans to restart offshore drilling, and cuts to federal funding for California’s hydrogen hub project.
“That is the rate and pace at which this administration is breaking the law,” Bonta added.
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Chaewon Chung covers climate and environmental issues for The Sacramento Bee. Before joining The Bee, she worked as a climate and environment reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina.