A coalition of environmental and public health groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday to try to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from repealing its conclusion that climate change poses a significant risk to public health and welfare.
The petition for review, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, came six days after the EPA made its long-awaited announcement that it would be abandoning the Obama-era “endangerment finding.” The suit was brought by the American Public Health Association, the American Lung Association, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club and more than 10 other related groups.
The endangerment finding, from 2009, serves as the basis for all federal regulations that govern greenhouse gas emissions. Without it, the EPA would be unable to regulate pollutants like carbon dioxide and methane and would be unable to take actions to try to slow the rate of global warming.