Clean Wisconsin has joined a broad coalition of health and environmental groups filing suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today over its illegal determination that it is not responsible for protecting us from climate pollution or car and truck pollution that’s fueling the climate crisis and harming people’s health.
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. Here in Wisconsin, the health harms and dangers of this pollution are already hurting communities across the state:
- Since the 1980s, Wisconsin has seen a three-fold increase in weather-disaster events that cause at least a billion dollars in damage, including droughts, flooding and severe storms.
- Tick-borne illnesses have exploded in Wisconsin as milder winters extend tick-active seasons. Reported cases of Lyme disease in the state have quadrupled in the past 20 years.
- In recent summers, Wisconsin has at times experienced the worst air quality in the country, and even the world, due to toxic smoke from wildfires in the Western United States and Canada. Climate change has created hotter, drier conditions in these areas, increasing the frequency and intensity of these fires.
The EPA also eliminated clean vehicle standards, which were set to deliver the single biggest cut to U.S. carbon pollution in history and save lives in Wisconsin. Highway vehicles represent the largest source of nitrogen-oxide emissions in the state and contribute to the formation of fine particulate matter and ozone. Particulate matter air pollution from highway vehicles in Wisconsin results in:
- 50 premature deaths each year
- 520 cases of respiratory distress
- 500 cases of asthma exacerbation
- $552 million in annual health costs
“Repealing the endangerment finding and vehicle emissions standards are among the most destructive and irresponsible actions taken by the Trump EPA to date,” says Katie Nekola, general counsel, Clean Wisconsin. “The dangers of climate change are becoming ever more apparent as Wisconsin experiences record heat, toxic air, and extreme weather. The EPA is ignoring its legal duty to protect our communities from the heath harms of greenhouse gas emissions in its zealous pandering to big oil, gas and coal interests.”
The EPA’s move to illegally repeal the endangerment finding is the latest in a long list of attempts by the Trump Administration to roll back critical environmental standards. Last year, the agency weakened Clean Air Act protections against mercury and other toxins, such as arsenic and benzene, and sought to reverse Safe Drinking Water Act standards for a host of toxic PFAS forever chemicals. Both moves face legal challenges.
In July, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the rollbacks are part of the agency’s new commitment to cutting regulations and ensuring “America can build and power the data centers essential to Making America the AI Capital of the World.” Yet the EPA’s legal mission under federal statute is to protect human health and the environment by developing, implementing, and enforcing federal regulations.
The named defendants in today’s legal action are EPA Administrator Zeldin and the EPA itself as an agency.
The lawsuit 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
- Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Law & Policy Center, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Public Citizen, and Sierra Club
