6 Days After EPA's Big Rollback, Legal Battle Begins

The legal battle has begun over the EPA's move to strip away a central pillar of US climate policy. More than a dozen environmental and public health groups sued the agency Wednesday in the DC Circuit, arguing it acted illegally last Thursday when it scrapped its 2009 "endangerment finding"—the scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health, and the basis for federal limits on emissions from vehicles and other sources.

The New York Times reports that plaintiffs say the agency is recycling arguments the Supreme Court knocked down in 2007's Massachusetts v. EPA, which forced the agency to decide whether greenhouse gases are dangerous and regulate them if so. Axios reports the EPA itself cited Supreme Court rulings, among them 2022 and 2024 decisions that "limit agencies' powers in the absence of clear congressional blessing." The case is widely expected to head back to a Supreme Court that is now more conservative than the one of two decades ago.

If those battling to restate the finding ultimately lose, any nationwide climate rules would likely have to come from Congress, per the Times. Axios adds that some Democratic-led states are prepping suits as well.