EPA repeals Endangerment Finding, caving to fossil fuel interests, and putting millions in harm’s way

WASHINGTON — Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a final rule repealing the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which confirmed EPA’s authority to regulate and protect the public from climate pollution from vehicles. This new rule denies established climate science and is an attempt to serve fossil fuel companies at the expense of communities in the South. 

The EPA’s decision will have severe consequences for Southern communities that are already facing some of the worst impacts of climate change. Transportation is the largest source of climate pollution nationwide, and in the South. The Southeast has experienced more billion-dollar disaster events than the rest of the country and has weathered multiple hurricanes since 2018. This is alarming news for Southern communities which will be asked to shoulder the severe health impacts of pollution sources; the financial costs and risks; and the extreme heat, flooding, and more intense storms of a warming climate.  

SELC attorneys released the following statements:  

Statement from DJ Gerken, SELC President, and Executive Director 
“Today the Trump administration proposed its hallmark climate policy: the federal government has no role in addressing the pollution and industries that cause it. This comes as my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina still struggles to recover from Hurricane Helene, and every other community across the South grapples with the increasing impacts of climate change, from flooding to storms to extreme heat.  

This policy will not stand. The Trump administration may try to force us backwards, but communities throughout the South will continue to fight for a cleaner, healthier, and safer environment.”  

Statement from Keri Powell, SELC’s Air Program Leader   
“Thousands of scientific studies demonstrate that greenhouse gas pollution poses a grave threat to public health and welfare, contributing to increased smog, higher temperatures, and more extreme weather events. The Trump EPA’s reckless action puts the health and safety of communities nationwide in jeopardy and ignores the real impacts of climate change we are seeing here and now.” 

Statement from Gudrun Thompson, SELC Energy Program Leader 
“The Trump EPA’s attack on established climate science not only violates the law, it defies common sense. In the South, we can see with our own eyes the harm that climate pollution is causing to our neighbors and the places we love, with extreme, climate-driven weather events like storms, fires and floods making headlines. SELC will continue to use every tool at our disposal to advocate for bold action to transition the South and the nation away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy and the safer, healthier future that everyone deserves.” 
 

Statement from Trip Pollard, SELC’s Land and Community Program Leader  
“The Trump administration’s recission of this finding must not stand. It is completely baseless, and is contrary to science, contrary to the law, and contrary to EPA’s mandate to protect our environment and our health. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the U.S., this pollution is a leading cause of climate change, and climate change is harming communities around the country. These are the facts, no matter how hard this administration attempts to ignore and distract from reality.”