FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 29, 2025
CONTACT:
Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
EPA Chooses Polluters Over People in Repeal of Endangerment Finding
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Environmental Protection Network unequivocally condemns the Trump administration’s decision to move forward with a plan that revokes the scientific and legal foundation for regulating climate pollution in the United States.
This action marks an extraordinary and dangerous abdication of EPA’s statutory duty to protect human health and the environment. By discarding the Endangerment Finding, the agency has eliminated the legal basis for regulating climate pollution from major sources, including vehicles, power plants, and the oil and gas sector.
“This repeal is not a misunderstanding of the science. It is a calculated decision to ignore it — and the law,” said Michelle Roos, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Network. “By discarding the Endangerment Finding, EPA is surrendering its authority, deserting vulnerable communities and dismantling decades of progress. The public health consequences will be immediate, widespread and devastating.”
The Endangerment Finding, first issued in 2009 in response to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, compelled the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions based on overwhelming scientific evidence. Its repeal now threatens every major federal climate protection adopted over the past 15 years.
EPA’s action comes alongside the rollback of vehicle greenhouse gas standards that were projected to prevent over 82,000 premature deaths and avoid billions of tons of climate pollution through 2055.
“This decision is both legally indefensible and morally bankrupt,” said Joseph Goffman, former Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “The Supreme Court made clear that EPA cannot ignore science or evade its responsibilities under the Clean Air Act. By walking away from the Endangerment Finding, EPA has not only broken with precedent; it has broken with reality.”
Some of the public health and environmental consequences that will result from this rollback, from this staggering disregard for the law and science, include:
- Tens of thousands of additional premature deaths due to pollution exposure (through 2055).
- 25.5 million more asthma attacks (2027-2055) and 1.1 million additional missed school days by 2045.
- Billions of dollars in lost health and climate benefits.
- Accelerated climate destabilization with greater risks of heatwaves, floods, droughts and disease spread.
This repeal is more than a regulatory rollback; it is a willful abandonment of the scientific, legal, and moral foundations of environmental protection. But, the fight is not over. Legal challenges must be pursued. Congress must exercise oversight and defend the Clean Air Act. And, the public must raise its voice because eliminating the Endangerment Finding puts lives at risk, and silence is not an option.
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Founded in 2017, the Environmental Protection Network harnesses the expertise of more than 650 former EPA career staff and confirmation-level appointees from Democratic and Republican administrations to provide the unique perspective of former scientists and regulators with decades of historical and subject matter knowledge.