Press Release  AG Campbell Leads States, Counties, And Cities In Opposing Recission Of EPA's Landmark 2009 Endangerment Finding

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today co-led a coalition of 23 attorneys general and seven counties and cities in filing a comment letter opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed recission of its landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions, including from motor vehicles, drive climate change and endanger public health and welfare. That finding is known as the Endangerment Finding. Last month, the Trump Administration announced its proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, claiming that EPA lacks authority to regulate air pollution that contributes to climate change and eliminating all existing EPA vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards in one fell swoop. 

“Two decades ago, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office led the fight to compel EPA to protect the American people from the proven dangers of greenhouse gas emissions,” said AG Campbell. “Climate change is real, and it is here. EPA’s rushed proposal amplifies unfounded climate skepticism and defies common sense, science, and the law— all at the expense of our health and wellbeing.” 

The 2009 Endangerment Finding was the direct result of the landmark 2007 Supreme Court opinion 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 direct response to that opinion, and after more than two years of scientific review, EPA determined in 2009 that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that harms public health and welfare in numerous ways.  

As the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) confirmed just last week, “EPA’s 2009 finding that the human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases threaten human health and welfare was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence.” EPA’s new proposal, which relies on a flawed, unlawful, and unfinished report issued by the Department of Energy’s now-disbanded Climate Working Group, seeks to reverse that finding with no grounding in law or science.    

Today’s comment letter is just one way that AG Campbell and the coalition have recently fought back against EPA’s dangerous proposal. 

2009 Endangerment Finding Comment Letter 

In their 225-page letter submitted to EPA today, the coalition argues that rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding would violate settled law, Supreme Court precedent, and scientific consensus, endangering the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, particularly those in communities disproportionately impacted by environmental harms. 

Scientific research has proven that every region of our country is experiencing the ongoing and significant harms of climate change and motor vehicle pollution, including changes in temperature, precipitation, and sea level. Extreme summer heat, driven by climate change, is leading to increased rates of heat-related illness and death, particularly among vulnerable populations like children, the elderly, low-income individuals, and workers. Increasing rates of natural disasters – like wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, and droughts – not only have a devastating effect on public health and safety, but on state and local economies as well. For example, in 2012, Superstorm Sandy brought strong winds, record ocean surge levels, coastal flooding, and the loss of power for roughly 385,000 Massachusetts residents, who suffered an estimated $375 million in property losses alone. 

Not only does EPA’s proposed recission ignore those facts, which are backed by robust climate science, but it also violates EPA’s legal obligations under the federal Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change. The coalition argues that EPA’s new legal interpretations are fundamentally inconsistent with the Clean Air Act and binding Supreme Court precedent, and that the proposal would mark a drastic reversal of its own longstanding findings without any explanation grounded in science. To make matters worse, the Climate Working Group report on which EPA relies is procedurally and substantively flawed, yet EPA blindly accepts its findings and disregards the scientific consensus, which was just reaffirmed by NAS last week. 

In filing this comment letter, the coalition urges EPA to abandon its unlawful and unsupported proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding. 

Joining AG Campbell in filing this comment letter, which she co-led with the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, and New York, were the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico,  North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin; the Cities of Chicago, New York, and Oakland; the Cities and Counties of Denver and San Francisco; and the Counties of Martin Luther King Jr., Washington and Santa Clara, California. 

Motor Vehicles Comment Letter  

In withdrawing the 2009 Endangerment Finding, EPA also proposes to repeal all existing federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for all motor vehicle classes and all years. In a second letter submitted to the EPA today, which AG Campbell joined, the coalition explains that this proposed, unprecedented disruption to the regulatory landscape of the last fifteen years will be catastrophic for the States and Local Governments’ residents, industries, natural resources, and public investments. For instance, EPA projected last year that current motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards would prevent more than 8 billion metric tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years, avoiding $1.82 trillion in climate harms. If those reductions from the federal motor vehicle greenhouse gas program alone were the emissions of a country, that country would rank 33rd on a list of the world’s top emitters. 

A robust regulatory program for greenhouse gas emissions is also crucial to vehicle affordability, consumer choice, and the success of the American automotive industry. The greenhouse gas program for vehicles spurs automakers to innovate and create better cars, saving drivers hundreds of billions of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs, and helps support domestic manufacturing and jobs. Repealing that program, as EPA now proposes, will shutter factories, kill jobs, and wipe out billions of dollars in investments by Congress, States, and local governments to keep the American auto industry thriving and globally competitive. The best way to support drivers and auto workers, while also protecting the planet and public health and welfare, is to continue promoting innovation in the most cutting-edge vehicle technologies. 

Joining AG Campbell in filing this comment letter were the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin; the Chief Legal Officers of the City of Chicago, Illinois; the City of New York, New York; the City of Oakland, California; Martin Luther King, Jr. County, Washington; the City and County of Denver, Colorado; the City and County of San Francisco, California; and the County of Santa Clara, California. 

Climate Working Group Comment Letter  

On September 2, AG Campbell co-led a coalition of 22 attorneys general, three cities, and two counties in filing a comment letter opposing the CWG report that EPA relied on in its proposed recission of the 2009 Endangerment Finding. 

In that comment letter, the coalition identified numerous procedural and substantive legal flaws in the Climate Working Group report. In creating the Climate Working Group, the Department of Energy selected five widely known climate change skeptics, ignored well-established scientific integrity standards, and failed to comply with Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) procedures, which require the disclosure of all committee-related records and that committee meetings be open to the public.  

The report – written in less than two months and riddled with inaccuracies, factual omissions, and mischaracterizations of irrefutable climate science research – attempts to critique decades of peer-reviewed scientific research establishing that the emission of greenhouse gases causes climate change and endangers public health and welfare. 

In filing the comment letter, the coalition urged the Department of Energy to withdraw the unlawful and misguided Climate Working Group report. 

Joining AG Campbell in filing the comment letter, which she co-led with the attorney general of New York, were the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the Chief Legal Officers of the City and County of Denver, Martin Luther King Jr. County, Washington, and the Cities of Chicago and New York.  

Climate Working Group Amicus Brief 

On August 29, AG Campbell led a coalition of 19 attorneys general and the City of New York in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Environmental Defense Fund v. Wright, supporting the plaintiffs in their effort to secure a declaration from the Court that the Climate Working Group’s report is unlawful. 

In their brief, the coalition argued that the Department of Energy violated FACA by establishing and utilizing the Climate Working Group, and that this violation will harm state and local governments’ strong interest in ensuring that the federal government rely on the best available science to guide its climate policy decisions. For example, Massachusetts relied on EPA data and methodologies in its own Massachusetts Climate Change Assessment, which summarizes the increasing climate harms facing the state and offers solutions as to how they should be addressed. 

On September 17, the Court held that the Climate Working Group is not exempt from FACA. 

Joining AG Campbell in filing this amicus brief were the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the City of New York. 

In addition to the actions described above, AG Campbell testified before EPA on August 19 to oppose its proposed recission of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards. AG Campbell outlined central flaws in EPA’s proposal, underscoring the illegality of the proposed recission, the agency’s use of flawed and unscientific sources to deny the realities of climate change, and its failure to acknowledge the impacts of climate change on Americans and, in particular, residents of the Commonwealth. 

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