Christopher Schuler, christopher.schuler@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC – Today, the Sierra Club called on Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin to publicly release the EPA’s recommendation on whether to strip the EPA of its authority to regulate climate pollution under the federal Clean Air Act. Trump’s dangerously misguided Day 1 executive order called for a 30-day review of EPA’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding, which the agency says was submitted to the White House by the deadline of Wednesday of this week. The White House and EPA have so far refused to announce the details of the recommendation.
The 2009 finding—based on the overwhelming scientific evidence that carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases endanger our health, our communities, and our economy—gives EPA the authority to regulate these heat-trapping gases emitted from sources like power plants, motor vehicles, and oil and gas extraction. It was adopted following a rigorous rulemaking process considering thousands of public comments and decades of scientific evidence, and has been upheld by the federal courts.
In the decade and a half since EPA released the endangerment finding, the evidence has continued to amass regarding both the severity of the climate crisis and the direct role that greenhouse gas emissions play in driving that crisis. Beyond the finding’s factual basis, as a purely legal matter, experts say that revoking or weakening the endangerment finding would be blatantly and directly at odds with the Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which held that the Clean Air Act grants the agency the authority to control greenhouse gas pollution. Revoking this authority could also open the floodgates to litigation in state court against utilities and other high-emitting industries, a far more chaotic and costly process than simply allowing EPA to do its job under the Clean Air Act.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous released the following statement:
“The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment, and any revocation or weakening of this life-saving action would endanger both. Denying both science and the Supreme Court to further unravel the Clean Air Act would be a slap in the face to the children and elderly suffering from asthma or COPD, the victims of extreme weather-fueled wildfires and floods, and to every person wanting clean air to breathe. The American people deserve answers from this administration on whether or not they plan to further ignore the law and science to put polluters over people. The Sierra Club is prepared to pursue all legal avenues and use every tool at its disposal to protect the American people and avert the very worst of the climate crisis.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.