Washington State Leads Coalition Against EPA's Proposal to Rescind Landmark Climate Change Finding

Attorneys General from Washington and 21 other states, along with nine local governments, have submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opposing its proposal to rescind the 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. The coalition argues that rescinding the finding would violate settled law, Supreme Court precedent, and scientific consensus, putting the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk. Attorney General Nick Brown stated, "The federal government is putting Washingtonians' lives at risk in its rush to gut climate protections." The EPA's proposal relies on a flawed and unlawful report issued by the Department of Energy's Climate Working Group, which the coalition has identified numerous procedural and substantive legal flaws in.

Key Takeaways:

• The coalition of 22 states, the District of Columbia, and nine local governments argues that rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding would violate settled law, Supreme Court precedent, and scientific consensus.
• The EPA's proposal would undo its landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of the harms caused by climate change.
• The coalition claims that the EPA is doing the opposite of what is needed to reduce greenhouse gases, by appeasing the world's biggest polluters.
• Scientific research has proven that every region of the country is experiencing the ongoing and significant harms of climate change and motor vehicle pollution.
• 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.
• The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine confirmed that "EPA's 2009 finding that the human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases threaten human health and welfare was accurate" and reinforced by even stronger evidence.
• The Department of Energy's Climate Working Group report relied on by the EPA has been criticized for its flawed methodology and lack of scientific integrity.
• The coalition has identified numerous procedural and substantive legal flaws in the report, including the selection of widely known climate change skeptics and failure to comply with Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) procedures.

Statistics:

• Over 100 heat-related deaths occurred in Washington in 2021, due to a devastating heatwave.
• Climate change has caused more precipitation in Washington to fall as rain instead of snow, decreasing snowpack and jeopardizing the state's drinking and irrigation water supply.
• The EPA projected that current motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards would prevent over 8 billion metric tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years, avoiding $1.82 trillion in climate harms.
• 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.

Sources:

• Washington State News: "Washington State Joins Coalition Opposing EPA's Proposal to Rescind Landmark Climate Change Finding"
• EPA: "Endangerment Finding for Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act"
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: "Reinforcing EPA's 2009 Endangerment Finding"
• Department of Energy's Climate Working Group: "Report to the Secretary of Energy"
• Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA): "Public Law 92-463, as amended"