Trump Erased the Endangerment Finding; Lawsuits Loom

When the Trump administration erased one of the nation’s bedrock scientific principles on climate change this week, it set up a legal battle likely to hinge on the Supreme Court. The endangerment finding — the E.P.A. conclusion that greenhouse gases endanger public health by heating up the world — grew out of a Supreme Court decision two decades ago that ordered the government to study whether greenhouse gases harm human health and, if so, to regulate them.

Today’s far more conservative Court could complicate the legal strategy of environmental groups and Democratic-led states lining up to sue. Environmental groups and state officials moved quickly to challenge the move. Andres Restrepo, the lawyer for the Sierra Club, said, “You can’t just stand by and let E.P.A.

trash its own authority because you’re scared of a potentially negative ruling.” “I think that it’s a bigger risk to do nothing.” Clearview Energy Partners warned that “If the rule survives all-but-certain legal challenges, we reiterate that it could reshape U.S.

United States

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