Washington joins state and local governments opposing EPA’s unsupported attempt to deny that greenhouse gases endanger public health

Washington, along with a coalition of other states and local governments, is opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to undo its landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare by driving climate change.

Last month, the Trump Administration announced its proposal to rescind that 2009 Endangerment Finding, claiming EPA lacks authority to regulate air pollution that contributes to climate change, and eliminate all existing EPA vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards in one fell swoop.

Today, the coalition of 22 states, the District of Columbia, and nine local governments submitted a comment letter to the EPA arguing that rescinding the finding would violate settled law, Supreme Court precedent, and scientific consensus, endangering the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans.

“The federal government is putting Washingtonians’ lives at risk in its rush to gut climate protections,” Attorney General Nick Brown said. “At this urgent moment when we all need to work together to reduce greenhouse gases, the EPA is doing the opposite by appeasing the world’s biggest polluters.”

Scientific research has proven that every region of our country is experiencing the ongoing and significant harms of climate change and motor vehicle pollution. In 2021, a devastating heatwave caused more than 100 heat-related deaths in Washington. In recent decades, more precipitation in Washington has fallen as rain instead of snow, and the decreased snowpack jeopardizes the state’s drinking and irrigation water supply.

The EPA made the 2009 Endangerment Finding following the 2007 Supreme Court opinion in Massachusetts v. EPA, which confirmed EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as air pollutants.

As the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 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 and unlawful report issued by the Department of Energy’s Climate Working Group, seeks to reverse that finding with a lack of grounding in law or science.   

Joining Brown in this comment letter, which was co-led by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, were the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, 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.  

A copy of the comment letter is available here.

Today’s comment letter is just one way that attorneys general and local governments have recently fought back against EPA’s dangerous proposal.

Motor Vehicles Comment Letter  

In withdrawing the 2009 Endangerment Finding, EPA also proposes to repeal existing federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for all motor vehicle classes back to 2012.  In a second letter submitted to the EPA today, which Washington joined, the coalition explains that this unprecedented disruption to the regulatory landscape 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. 

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 create better cars, saving drivers hundreds of billions of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs, and helps support domestic manufacturing and jobs.

Joining Brown in filing this comment letter, which was led by the attorney general of California, were the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia; and 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, Brown joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general, three cities, and two counties in filing a comment letter opposing the Climate Working Group report that EPA relied on in its proposed rescission 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—attempts to critique decades of peer-reviewed scientific research establishing that greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change and endanger public health and welfare. 

The coalition, led by New York, urged the Department of Energy to withdraw the unlawful and misguided report.  

Climate Working Group Amicus Brief 

On August 29, Brown joined 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 declare the Climate Working Group’s report unlawful. 

On September 17, the Court held that the federal government is not exempt from the Federal Advisory Committee Act. 

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