This EPA rollback could dismantle decades of climate progress

What's At Stake

The last 10 years have all been the hottest on record. And just as dry areas are likely to get drier with rising global temperatures, places with historically heavy precipitation will only get wetter, increasing the chances of extreme rainfall and flooding. These impacts have already been felt in places like Texas and North Carolina where recent floods devastated communities. 

But, instead of finding ways to fight the climate crisis, the Trump administration is going against science to undermine a key finding that many U.S. climate policies rest on: that greenhouse gases are air pollutants that endanger public health and welfare by driving climate change. 

Since 2009, EPA’s Endangerment Finding has been the backbone and legal foundation for federal greenhouse gas emission standards, from cleaner car and truck standards to power plant pollution reduction standards. Trump’s plan to repeal this foundational requirement that reins in climate pollution would leave us with dirtier air, more extreme weather events, more harm to our health, and more risk to our communities. 

The federal government is putting their proposal up for public comment and we need to show them that people across this country overwhelmingly support actions to reduce climate pollution. If their plan goes through, the U.S. will abandon all climate progress, our air will worsen, and fossil fuel corporations will be free to spew limitless climate-harming pollution.

Dark gray clouds of steam emerge from the top of a smokestack at night, lit by red lights on the smokestack with a dark blue sky in the background.
Emissions rise from a coal-fired generation station in Indiana. (Luke Sharrett / Bloomberg Creative via Getty Images)

42 Days Remain

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

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It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.