A coalition of 23 state attorneys general, 10 cities, five counties and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) filed a lawsuit March 19 in federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule last month that repealed the endangerment finding, the 2009 scientific basis for regulating sources of greenhouse gases. greenhouse plants and other harmful energy sources.
The lawsuit says the rule is illegal, and the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the finding in a 2007 ruling. The repeal removes all greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles and could lead to further changes in climate change-related air emissions regulations for stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, and in the types of projects of infrastructure that are allowed, financed and built. .
The EPA announced its final rule to rescind the finding on February 12.
“By trying to roll back protections that keep pollution out of the air we breathe, the Trump Administration is once again throwing science out the window and putting the lives of Pennsylvanians at risk, so I’m taking them to court to stop this,” Shapiro said. “I will continue to oppose this administration’s harmful actions and protect the health and safety of 13 million Pennsylvanians.”
An EPA spokesman said the new suit is “politically motivated.” The agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, said in striking down the rule that its regulation exceeded the powers Congress granted the agency to regulate vehicle and engine emissions, based on a “robust analysis of the law after [high court] decisions in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo i West Virginia v. EPA.”
The plaintiffs, in addition to Pennsylvania, are New York, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, District of Columbia, US Virgin Islands, New York, San Francisco (city and county), Chicago, Denver and Cleveland (city) Harris County in Texas, Santa Clara County in California and Martin Lyther King County in Wash.
The legal filing will be consolidated with a lawsuit from the existing environmental group, filed just after the repeal, in a challenge likely headed to the high court to decide.
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