REGULATORY · MARKET STRUCTURE · USA
Trump EPA repeals greenhouse-gas endangerment finding
Change
The Environmental Protection Agency repealed the greenhouse-gas endangerment finding last month.
Why it matters
The EPA repealed the endangerment finding, the scientific determination that gave federal officials authority to control greenhouse-gas emissions. The Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to invalidate Vermont’s 2024 climate superfund law on the ground that federal law governs greenhouse-gas emissions. Conservation Law Foundation and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont filed that the administration cannot both claim federal preemption and assert it lacks statutory authority to regulate emissions. New York’s attorney general filed a letter defending Vermont’s law and New York’s climate superfund statute. Environmental and public-health groups sued the EPA over the repeal, and California and Connecticut pledged to bring lawsuits as well; a livestreamed hearing on the DOJ challenge to Vermont is scheduled for 30 March and the Supreme Court agreed to review an energy-producers petition related to a Boulder climate suit.
Implications
- • Department of Justice has lodged a federal-court preemption challenge seeking to invalidate Vermont’s climate-superfund law.
- • Environmental and public-health organizations have sued to overturn the EPA repeal.
- • California and Connecticut have pledged litigation against the EPA repeal.
- • The Supreme Court has agreed to review an energy-producers petition tied to federal-preemption arguments in a Boulder climate case.
Who is affected
- • State attorneys general
- • State legislatures and environmental agencies enacting climate-superfund laws
- • Federal regulators and the Department of Justice
- • Environmental and public-health litigants and energy producers
What to watch
- • 30 March livestreamed hearing on the Department of Justice challenge to Vermont’s climate superfund law
- • Supreme Court review of energy producers’ petition to dismiss the Boulder climate suit
Source
Topics
Law & Public Safety Court Rulings Climate & Environment Climate Change Environmental Regulation