States shred EPA rollback of key environmental protection

WASHINGTON (CN) — A coalition of 25 attorneys general sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday over its decision to rescind the landmark scientific conclusion that carbon dioxide pollution endangers human health.

The coalition, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, says the decision to dump the Endangerment Finding violates settled law, clear Supreme Court precedent and the longstanding consensus among the scientific community that the pollution caused by vehicle emissions harm humanity and the environment.

Bonta, joined by California Governor Gavin Newsom, the California Air Resources Board, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the cities New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Boston, Columbus and Albuquerque, sued the EPA in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“With the unlawful rescission of the Endangerment Finding, President Trump and his EPA have abandoned their most important mission: protecting the health and welfare of the American people,” Bonta said in a statement announcing the suit.

“Let me be clear: This unlawful rescission is not about cutting ‘red tape’” Bonta continued. “The president is choosing Big Oil profits over our health, and betting that the American people won’t notice the cost until the bill comes due at the expense of our communities.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the rollback on Feb. 12, along with the elimination of rules to cut vehicle emissions, calling it the “single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”

The EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding had been the foundation of the nation’s efforts to combat climate change under the Clean Air Act and has repeatedly been upheld by federal courts and the last three presidents, including President Donald Trump during his first term. However, it has been a key target of the president’s during his second term, and he celebrated Zeldin’s decision at the White House by asserting any negative consequences of the finding were “all dead, gone, over.”

The 2009 finding stems from a 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are unambiguously air pollutants under the Clean Air Act and instructed the EPA to decide if the pollution endangers human health.

“This is what corruption looks like,” Newsom said in the statement. “Donald Trump is breaking the laws that protect Americans from climate pollution — all to enrich his Big Oil and his wealthy polluting allies. Workers, families and communities would pay the price, left choking on dirty air.”

The coalition says the decision violates the Clean Air Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, as the EPA’s reasoning rests on a flawed theory that it lacks the legal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Further, the rule’s elimination of all existing and future federal greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles violated the EPA’s legal obligation and its fundamental mission to protect public health and welfare.

The coalition wants the D.C. Circuit to vacate the EPA’s rescission and restore its greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles.

In the Feb. 12 rescission, the EPA specifically cited the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo overturning the longstanding legal doctrine known as Chevron deference. The agency said it was one of several cases that have clarified the EPA’s scope under the Clean Air Act.

Specifically, the agency claims the additional decisions in West Virginia v. EPA, Michigan v. EPA and Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA each emphasized that “statutes have a single, best meaning fixed at the time of enactment.”

The rollback is just the latest effort by the Trump administration to gut environmental regulations.

In March 2025, Zeldin announced the EPA would undertake 31 actions to reconsider climate regulations, including rules for power plants, the oil and gas industry, coal-fired power plants, coal ash programs, and wastewater regulations for coal plants. Zeldin formally proposed the reversal in July 2025.

The effort would also end the “good neighbor" rule meant to reduce cross-state pollution, which the Supreme Court paused in June 2024.

Thursday’s lawsuit is the second in the D.C. Circuit challenging the EPA’s rescission.

On Feb. 18, a coalition of health and environmental organizations led by the American Public Health Association filed their lawsuit, arguing the rollbacks were based on “political poppycock, not science or law.”

The case has not yet been assigned to a panel or scheduled for arguments. It has already been consolidated with four similar cases, and will likely be consolidated with Thursday’s lawsuit.

Another group of 25 GOP-led states have intervened in the case to defend the EPA’s decision.

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