Press Statement  AG Campbell Condemns Illegal Repeal of EPA's Landmark 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final rule rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which determined that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that drives climate change and endangers public health and welfare.  

“EPA’s unlawful rescission of the 2009 Endangerment Finding shows just how far this Administration will go to grant favors to polluters—ignoring clear Supreme Court precedent, basic facts, and decades of scientific research, all at the expense of our health and welfare,” said AG Campbell. “Two decades ago, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office led the fight to force the federal government to protect the American people from the proven dangers of greenhouse gas emissions, and we will lead once again against the Trump Administration’s attempt to walk away from that responsibility. I’ll see them in Court.” 

The 2009 Endangerment Finding was the direct result of the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which confirmed EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that threaten public health and welfare. In response to that opinion and after years of scientific review, EPA confirmed in 2009 that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that harms public health and welfare in numerous ways. The agency then set standards to limit motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.  

EPA’s rescission of the Endangerment Finding rests on the flawed assertion—soundly rejected by the Supreme Court—that it lacks legal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and the rescission ignores longstanding scientific evidence that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The rule eliminates all existing and future federal greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles, violating the agency’s legal obligations and fundamental responsibility to protect public health and welfare from environmental harm.  

In August 2025, following the Trump Administration’s initial proposal to repeal the Endangerment Finding, AG Campbell testified before the EPA, highlighting the illegality of the proposed rescission, the agency’s reliance on flawed and unscientific sources to deny climate change, and its failure to acknowledge climate impacts on everyday life. In the fall of 2025, she co-led a coalition of 23 attorneys general and seven counties and cities in submitting two comment letters urging the EPA to abandon the proposal, arguing that it would violate settled law, clear Supreme Court precedent, and scientific consensus, endanger hundreds of millions of Americans—particularly communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harms—and cause unprecedented disruption to the regulatory landscape with catastrophic consequences for residents, industries, natural resources, and public investments.