The Trump administration’s effort to undo the key government rationale for combating climate change and air pollution is being challenged by a coalition of environment groups from around the nation, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The “endangerment finding” was a scientific determination made by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 that greenhouse gas pollution harms public health and welfare. It serves as the legal underpinning for federal climate action, including the regulation of emissions from vehicles and power plants.
In February, the EPA announced it was eliminating the finding, as well as greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles that stemmed from it. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin praised the action as “the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”
The decision was widely criticized by environmentalists as well as many scientists, and several scientific groups, public health organizations and states quickly challenged the action in court.
On April 8, a coalition of mostly regional environmental groups, including the Bay Foundation, joined in a suit against the EPA, saying the rollback threatens the health of humans and the environment in areas where they work.
“This latest rollback is a threat to us all,” said Alison Hooper Prost, the foundation’s senior vice president for programs. “Flooding and sea level rise are walloping communities up and down the Bay. Heat waves send people to hospitals from Baltimore to Richmond. Warmer waters are driving away striped bass, brook trout and other wildlife. And increasingly intense storms are washing more pollution into rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.”
The suit was filed by the nonprofit group Earthjustice.