Trump’s EPA Rolled Back the ‘Endangerment Finding.’ We’re Taking Them to Court.

What happened:

• Earthjustice is suing Trump’s EPA for repealing the endangerment finding.
• The finding is the EPA’s scientific and legal conclusion that the Clean Air Act requires regulation of greenhouse gas emissions to protect public health and welfare.
• Along with it, the EPA also repealed greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles.
• The EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases was confirmed by the Supreme Court nearly two decades ago and has been repeatedly affirmed by courts since.

The Trump administration has repealed a long-standing finding that requires the government to fight climate change as a matter of public health. Its actions have no basis in the law or reality – so we’re challenging them in federal court.

In 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that greenhouse gases from vehicles endanger public health and welfare by driving climate change. As such, these gases are subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act.

This determination — rooted in scientific consensus and affirmed by the courts — is known as the endangerment finding. Now, the Trump administration is officially denying both settled science and the government’s legal obligation to address climate change. This, despite Americans facing increasing and intensifying wildfires, hurricanes, and other climate-change fueled disasters.

As it rescinded the finding, the administration also repealed carbon pollution standards for vehicle emissions. Transportation emissions are the top contributor to climate change in the U.S.

“The Trump administration is sacrificing our health, our safety, our economy, and our future by abandoning its core responsibility to keep us safe from extreme weather and accelerating climate change,” said Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen. “The courts have repeatedly affirmed EPA’s obligation to clean up climate pollution. There is no way to reconcile EPA’s decision with the law, the science, and the reality of disasters that are hitting us harder every year. This is a slap in the face for all of the millions of Americans who are experiencing the devastating costs of extreme heat, wildfires, flooding, and storms.”

Read on to learn more about where the finding came from and why it matters.

How have the courts ruled on the endangerment finding?

The EPA’s determination was the result of a historic Supreme Court case. In 2007, the court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA was then required to determine whether greenhouse gases pose a risk to public health and welfare and make rules to protect the public if so. Faced with a trove of scientific research that links greenhouse gases to a warming, chaotic climate, the agency released the endangerment finding in 2009.

Since then, the finding has been repeatedly affirmed by the courts. Polluting industries have brought several failed legal challenges, including one that Earthjustice helped defeat in court. In 2023, the U.S. Circuit Court in D.C. unanimously rejected the most recent challenge by an oil industry group and the Supreme Court declined their request to appeal.

Firefighters battle the Palisades Fire as it burns multiple structures in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Ethan Swope / AP)

What are the health harms of climate change?

The climate crisis, which is driven by greenhouse gases, poses severe risks to human health and well-being. These harms disproportionately affect people of color, children, the elderly, and other vulnerable groups. According to one estimate, extreme heat will kill 60,000 U.S. residents a year by 2050.

Climate disasters like hurricanes and wildfires cost lives, threaten food and water safety, and displace people from their homes. For example, Hurricane Helene claimed over 200 lives in 2024, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and cost the state of North Carolina alone nearly $60 billion in damage.

Heat and wildfires are also worsening air quality, which exacerbates heart and lung diseases. In 2024, 46% of the U.S. population lived in counties with failing grades in ozone and particulate matter pollution. Wildfires now account for nearly 40% of particulate matter pollution in this country.

What are the economic costs of climate pollution?

The last 10 years have been the hottest on record amid increasing extreme weather events. The cost of extreme weather and climate disasters is skyrocketing. As of December 2025, the U.S. has experienced 426 climate disasters costing $1 billion or more, with a total cost exceeding $3.1 trillion. Climate-fueled disasters are driving up insurance rates on homes and businesses, and insurers are exiting high-risk markets.

A technician uses a hammer while working on the underside of an Altima sedan at Nissan’s Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant in Canton, Mississippi. Nissan plans to build two all-new electric models at the plant starting in 2025. (Rogelio V. Solis / AP)

What’s the Trump administration doing to vehicle emissions standards?

Along with attacking the endangerment finding, the Trump administration has also weakened climate emission standards for new cars, trucks, and other vehicles.

Transportation is the largest source of climate pollution in the country.  Over the last 50 years, motor vehicles in the U.S. have emitted more greenhouse gas emissions than vehicles in the next nine highest-emitting countries combined. They also emit other air pollutants that harm people’s health, causing thousands of premature deaths and billions in health care costs every year.

In reversing course on vehicle emissions, the Trump administration is making our economy less competitive. The world is already electrifying its cars and trucks, and the Trump administration is seeking to tie American manufacturers to an old and dying technology.

For decades, Earthjustice’s litigation has helped strengthen the laws that protect communities from dirty air and reduce climate pollution. We will not cede this progress.