Senators demand answers about pre-determined EPA change to national emissions standards

WASHINGTON D.C. (KEYT) – California's Senators joined 38 other members of the nation's upper chamber in announcing an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) decision last week to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding.

The endangerment finding was the basis of the statutory authority of the federal government to set greenhouse gas emissions standards nationwide based on the risk they posed to public health.

The change announced last week removed the basis for current greenhouse gas emissions standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles as well as heavy-duty engines.

"The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final rule1 rescinding the December 7, 2009, endangerment finding marks a fundamental break from nearly two decades of settled law, science, and regulatory practice under the Clean Air Act," opened a letter to the current Administrator of the EPA and signed by 40 sitting members of the U.S. Senate. "Its repeal destroys that framework and results in a failure to faithfully execute EPA’s statutory mandate to protect human health—a mandate you acknowledged repeatedly during your confirmation hearing. But setting aside the dire implications of this final rule, the timing of and context for this entire enterprise suggest that this was a predetermined outcome, perhaps dictated more by concern for corporate interests than by an honest review of the law and science of climate change."

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that greenhouse gas emissions are air pollutants within the language of the Clean Air Act and in 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the ruling.

Based on that 2007 decision in federal court, the Administrator of the EPA certified that concentrations of six greenhouse gases -carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride- threatened public health in December of 2009.

"This determination had no basis in fact whatsoever," argued President Trump during a ceremony announcing the revocation of the finding last week. "On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world."

Since then, Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act empowered the EPA to set national emissions standards for new motorized vehicles and engines stating, "The [EPA] Administrator shall by regulation prescribe (and from time to time revise) in accordance with the provisions of this section, standards applicable to the emission of any air pollutant from any class or classes of new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines, which in his judgment cause, or contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare."

"In media appearances and official communications, you framed repeal as 'the largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States,' emphasizing cost savings and ideological opposition rather than engagement with the statutory endangerment standard—or with the massive costs to human health and welfare that greenhouse gas-driven climate change imposes," noted the letter from Senators. "Your improper, conclusory statements align with internal EPA documents showing that EPA leadership was moving to finalize the rescission of the endangerment finding before EPA staff had even had the chance to complete the agency’s required regulatory review."

The Senators went on to share that more than 570,000 public comments were submitted during a review of the changes which fit within EPA Administrator Zeldin's previously announced "Powering the Great American Comeback" initiative that was intended to balance the statutory mission of the EPA to protect public health with plans to energize the nation's economy by reducing the cost of new vehicles.

"[T]he Trump EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers," explained EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in July of last year. "[R]escinding the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations would end $1 trillion or more in hidden taxes on American businesses and families."

When announcing the policy change, the EPA cited a Department of Energy report entitled 'A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate' published in July of last year.

"The rise of human flourishing over the past two centuries is a story worth celebrating," noted the Secretary of Energy's foreword in the July report. "Yet we are told—relentlessly—that the very energy systems that enabled this progress now pose an existential threat. Hydrocarbon-based fuels, the argument goes, must be rapidly abandoned or else we risk planetary ruin. That view demands scrutiny. That’s why I commissioned this report: to encourage a more thoughtful and science-based conversation about climate change and energy."

The report went on to cast doubt on the scientific consensus regarding the extent of human-caused emissions on the climate and extreme weather events as well as the economic and social impact of the nation's environmental policies.

"Elevated concentrations of CO2 directly enhance plant growth, globally contributing to 'greening' the
planet and increasing agricultural productivity," argued Section 2.1, Chapter 9 of the July report. "There is evidence that scenarios widely-used in the impacts literature have overstated observed and likely future emission trends [Section 3.1]."

"The [Department of Energy's Climate Working] group’s five authors, including a former BP chief scientist and other researchers known for questioning mainstream climate science on issues such as the severity of climate impacts, have extensive histories promoting views at odds with widely accepted climate science," noted the Senators in their letter this month. "After a Massachusetts federal court found that the Working Group was subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act and, therefore, subject to certain transparency and public participation requirements, DOE Secretary Chris Wright disbanded the Working Group before it could finalize its report or address the legal deficiencies -presumably because doing so would expose fatal flaws in the Working Group’s methodology."

The Senators went on to note that, "In December, the agency was ordered to produce records related to the group’s activities. A federal judge then ruled that the DOE violated federal law when Secretary Wright hand-picked the five researchers and convened the Working Group in secret, finding that its formation and operation breached the Federal Advisory Committee Act’s requirements for transparency, public
meetings, and balanced viewpoints."

"Taken together, this evidence shows that EPA reached a firm conclusion about the outcome of the reconsideration well before reviewing the full administrative record or considering the substantial public comments submitted in response to the proposal," concluded the Senators. "EPA’s approach is particularly troubling because the endangerment finding rests on decades of firm science. An agency seeking to reverse such a determination is not writing on a blank slate; it must grapple with the existing record of evidence and explain how the facts have changed or why a different conclusion is now justified."

Despite the issues with the report and the President's arguments justifying the removal, the Senators did acknowledge that the EPA did not solely rely on that study when making the change to national vehicle and engine emissions standards.

Instead, the EPA argued that the 2009 endangerment finding was instead a "profound misreading" of the Supreme Court's ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA and that the agency's subsequent finding and later regulations based on the finding were legally flawed.

The Senators then requested all communications about the planned rule change by the Trump Administration by Feb. 27, 2026.