Attorney General Andrea Campbell pledged that she would “see them in court” when the Trump administration rescinded the 2009 policy that underpins essentially all federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, and on Thursday moved with her counterparts around the country to make good on her word.
Campbell and the attorneys general of California, Connecticut and New York led a coalition of 24 states and other governments to petition a court to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s move to eliminate the so-called Endangerment Finding — in which the EPA concluded that greenhouse gases pose an urgent risk to public health and should be regulated.
“EPA has rushed a rulemaking process to rescind the Endangerment Finding and repeal all motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards, blatantly disregarding the law and science. EPA’s rescission is based on flawed interpretations of the law — previously rejected by the Supreme Court — that the agency lacks authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions,” Campbell’s office wrote in a press release. “The rescission also ignores decades of peer-reviewed scientific evidence confirming the reality and severity of climate change. By eliminating all existing and future federal motor vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards, the rule violates EPA’s legal obligations, fundamental principles of administrative law, and the agency’s mission to protect public health and welfare.”
What was filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is a one-page “petition for review” that asks the court to take a look at the EPA’s action without making the case that the action was flawed.
Campbell’s office said the Endangerment Ruling came about as a “direct result” of the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which confirmed that the EPA had authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that threaten public health and welfare.
When the Trump administration announced its rescission in February, the White House called it “the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the move would save Americans more than $1.3 trillion by eliminating regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal emission standards for motor vehicles.
Campbell’s office included in its press release a list of the ways in which it says a changing climate is affecting Massachusetts: statewide temperatures have risen nearly 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900 and are projected to continue climbing; there could be up to 400 additional heat-related deaths annually by the end of the century; statewide flood costs projected to grow by $9.3 million annually by 2030; as heat damages infrastructure, annual rail repair costs are projected to increase to $6 million by 2050 and $35 million by 2100; pediatric asthma rates are projected to increase more than sevenfold by 2090; more than 24,000 acres of wetlands here could disappear by 2100; and direct flood damage to commercial structures could reach $270 million annually by 2090.
The other parties to the petition are: the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, the District of Columbia, and the United States Virgin Islands. The group also includes Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Cities that have signed on include Boston; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; and New York, New York. The counties of Harris, Texas; Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington; and Santa Clara, California; and the combined cities and counties of Denver, Colorado, and San Francisco, California are also part of the group.
Colin Young is the deputy editor for State House News Service and State Affairs Pro Massachusetts. Reach him at colin.young@statehousenews.com.
