The case, filed in the D.C. Circuit, challenges the Trump EPA’s rescission of the 2009 endangerment finding, which found that climate pollution is a threat to public health and welfare, and the elimination of the vehicle emissions standards.
The case was brought by: the American Public Health Association, American Lung Association, Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment, Clean Wisconsin, represented by Clean Air Task Force, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ), Clean Air Council, Friends of the Earth, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC), and the Union of Concerned Scientists, represented by Earthjustice, and
Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, and Sierra Club.
The named defendants are EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and EPA itself as an agency.
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is legally required to limit vehicle emissions of any “air pollutant” that the agency determines “cause or contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”
In 2007, the US Supreme Court held in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases unambiguously are “air pollutants” under the Clean Air Act and told EPA to determine, based on the science, if that pollution endangers human health and welfare.
EPA made that determination in 2009, which led to new standards for vehicles. It built on that finding when issuing other standards.
In its repeal, the Trump EPA is rehashing legal arguments that the Supreme Court already considered and rejected in Massachusetts v. EPA.
Along with the repeal of the endangerment finding, the EPA eliminated all carbon emissions standards from vehicles.
The EPA’s clean car standards set in 2024 would save drivers of new cars an average of $6,000 over the lifetime of their vehicles.
The EPA’s own analysis found that eliminating the vehicle standards will increase gas prices, force Americans to spend more on fuel, and be a net negative for the economy.
Quotes from Plaintiffs
“With this action, EPA flips its mission on its head,” said Hana Vizcarra, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “It abandons its core mandate to protect human health and the environment to boost polluting industries and attempts to rewrite the law in order to do so. Earthjustice and our partners will defend what we all know to be true: climate pollution is harming our health, welfare, and economy and EPA has an obligation to control these harmful emissions.”
“The Endangerment Finding has been the backbone of climate policy for 17 years, protecting us from air pollution that endangers public health and welfare — including greenhouse gases that are driving climate change,” said Lawrence Hafetz, Clean Air Council’s Legal Director. “By repealing the finding, we are sweeping the single deadliest type of pollution, climate pollution, under the rug. Deadly floods, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes are harming our health, our communities, and our economy. This climate chaos plan is decimating the EPA’s ability to act when we need protections more than ever.”
“The EPA’s rollback of the endangerment finding is a devastating decision that goes against the science and testimony of countless scientists, health care professionals, and public health practitioners,” said Ankush K. Bansal, MD, DCM, FACP, FACPM, SFHM, Physicians for Social Responsibility Board President. “It will result in direct harm to the health of Americans throughout the country, particularly children, older adults, those with chronic illnesses, and other vulnerable populations, rural to urban, red and blue, of all races and incomes. The increased exposure to harmful pollutants and other greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel production and consumption will make America sicker, not healthier, less prosperous, not more, for generations to come.”
“EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment,” said Harold Wimmer, President and CEO, American Lung Association. “Repealing the Endangerment Finding and vehicle emission safeguards weakens important protections against air pollution that harm lung health. On behalf of the millions of people living with lung disease and everyone who breathes, the American Lung Association is committed to upholding the law and protecting public health.”
“As the nonpartisan National Academies stated last fall, the endangerment finding ‘was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence.’ No amount of legal sophistry from this administration or EPA can evade the well settled statutory requirements and those scientific conclusions,” said Frank Sturges, Attorney at Clean Air Task Force (CATF). “The Clean Air Act’s requirements are simple: protect public health and welfare from air pollutants that endanger them. On the law and on the science, greenhouse gases fit that bill. To protect public health and the environment, we will challenge this unlawful action in court, and when the dust settles, we will prevail.”
“Repealing the Endangerment Finding endangers all of us. People everywhere will face more pollution, higher costs, and thousands of avoidable deaths,” said Peter Zalzal, Distinguished Counsel and Associate Vice President of Clean Air Strategies at Environmental Defense Fund. “The Trump EPA’s action tramples mountains of scientific evidence, ignores the law, and is fundamentally at odds with EPA’s core responsibility to protect us from dangerous pollution. We are challenging this action in court, where evidence matters, and we will continue working together to build a better, safer and more prosperous future.”
“The Trump EPA’s slapdash legal arguments should be laughed out of court. Undercutting the ability of the federal government to tackle the largest source of climate pollution is deadly serious, but the administration’s legal and scientific reasons for doing so are a joke,” said Meredith Hankins, legal director for federal climate at NRDC.
Click Here for a copy of the complaint.
NewsClips:
-- The Allegheny Front: What The End Of The Climate ‘Endangerment Finding’ Means For Pennsylvania
-- Wall Street Journal: President To Repeal Landmark Climate Finding In Huge Regulatory Rollback This Week
-- Bloomberg: EPA To Scrap Landmark US Climate Emissions Policy In Major Rollback
-- NYTimes: President’s Near ‘Total Victory’ In Wiping Out US Climate Regulation
[Posted: February 19, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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