Governor Josh Shapiro signed onto a multi-state lawsuit on Thursday which challenges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s repeal of the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding on February 12.
The finding was based on a 2009 scientific conclusion that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. The lawsuit seeks to reinstate the finding and could be consolidated with a case that environmental groups filed last month, which would make it one of the largest legal challenges against the administration’s actions on federal climate policy, according to WGAL.
According to the Governor’s office’s press release, the lawsuit “challenges the Trump administration’s dangerous assault on environmental protection measures that keep pollution out of the air Pennsylvania families breathe.”
“Pollution puts people’s health at risk, makes severe weather worse, threatens our farmers’ crops, and makes health care more expensive. By trying to roll back protections that keep pollution out of the air we breathe, the Trump Administration is once again throwing science out the window and putting Pennsylvanians’ lives at risk – so I’m taking them to court to put a stop to it,” Shapiro said in the release. “I will continue to stand up against this Administration’s harmful actions and protect the health and safety of all 13 million Pennsylvanians.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency is saving American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion by eliminating both the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding and all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond.
“The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans,” said Zeldin. “Referred to by some as the ‘Holy Grail’ of the ‘climate change religion,’ the Endangerment Finding is now eliminated. The Trump EPA is strictly following the letter of the law, returning commonsense to policy, delivering consumer choice to Americans and advancing the American Dream. As EPA Administrator, I am proud to deliver the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history on behalf of American taxpayers and consumers. As an added bonus, the off-cycle credit for the almost universally despised start-stop feature on vehicles has been removed.”
The filing was led by Massachusetts and California and joined by 21 other states alongside roughly a dozen cities and counties. It can be found below:
For more lawsuits filed by the Shapiro administration against the Trump administration, you can click here.
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