WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency’s final repeal of its endangerment finding poses serious risks for wildlife, communities, and public health — and runs contrary to the agency’s mission and obligations under the Clean Air Act. The 2009 determination, grounded in overwhelming scientific evidence, found that greenhouse gases harm public health and welfare by driving climate change. 

"For decades, rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific research has affirmed the risks posed by accumulating greenhouse gas emissions and the courts have repeatedly upheld the necessity of the endangerment finding in fulfilling the EPA’s responsibility to protect public health and the environment,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “Reversing this decision disregards established data and abdicates the EPA’s statutory obligation under the Clean Air Act to address pollutants that endanger our communities. Abandoning this evidence-based foundation hinders our ability to effectively mitigate accelerating climate impacts that are harming people and wildlife alike.”

There has been widespread scientific consensus for decades, including from the EPA, documenting how greenhouse gas emissions drive climate change and its worsening effects, including dangerous heat waves, worsening air-quality, extreme weather events, and the disruption of ecosystems. The decision will disproportionately affect underserved communities, frontline, and fenceline communities who are likely to face the earliest and greatest harms from worsening heat, wildfires, flooding, and pollution-driven illness.

"In my lifetime, I have yet to find an example where making our air, water and landscape dirtier has been beneficial to Americans," said Russell Kuhlman, executive director of the Nevada Wildlife Federation. "Nevadans know the feeling of having poor air quality due to wildfires.  Rolling back efforts to provide clean air and prioritizing actions that will lead to increased wildfires is not ensuring we provide the next generation and environment better than we found it."

“Across Maine, farmers, fishermen, and communities in our rural state are experiencing the impacts of extreme weather made worse by climate change,” said Todd Garth, interim executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “With this move, the Trump Administration’s EPA is ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real and deliberately turning a blind eye to the threats that harmful air pollution poses to the health of our people and environment.” 

“Eliminating the endangerment finding ignores decades of science and strips essential environmental protections while we are watching climate pollution worsen natural disasters. Massachusetts’ efforts helped secure the endangerment finding through the landmark MA v. EPA case, and our leaders have fought EPA's actions to abandon their duty to protect our communities and environment,” said Amy Boyd Rabin, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for the Environmental League of Massachusetts. “No one will be immune to the health outcomes, worsening climate impacts, and job loss resulting from this decision. The people deserve better.” 

“Montana hunters and anglers pay firsthand the costly impacts of climate change. Warmer waters and reduced snowpack hurt native cutthroat trout and our blue ribbon streams and rivers. Warmer winters increase stress on wolverines, bears, moose, elk, pronghorns and other wildlife. Many Montana families and businesses make a living from outdoor recreation, and unchecked greenhouse gas emissions could cost Montana 11,000 jobs and $232 million annually by mid-century,” said Frank Szollosi, executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation. “Restoring the endangerment finding is really about restoring science, values, and sanity, as it gives decision-makers common sense tools to reduce the pollution that threatens Montana's wildlife, habitat, and families."

“Moving backwards is clearly the new norm at the USEPA,” said Maggie Bruns, executive director at Prairie Rivers Network. “Temperatures in Illinois are projected to climb up to 14 degrees by 2100 if carbon pollution is left unchecked. This reversal signals a disastrous setback for the U.S. as a whole. Thankfully, Governor Pritzker and his administration understand the importance of science in setting climate protections for Illinois. We in Illinois can still chart our own course forward and inspire similar efforts elsewhere. States can still move the country forward in the face of a federal government that no longer protects our communities, public health, and wildlife.”