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<\/a><\/p>\nThe Clean Air Act is clear: EPA has an affirmative duty to protect public health and welfare from air pollutants, including greenhouse gases \u2014 a responsibility the Supreme Court affirmed in 2007. By repealing the Endangerment Finding, the Trump administration is not exercising its scientific judgment. It is breaking the law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This is what corruption looks like. Donald Trump is breaking the laws that protect Americans from climate pollution \u2014 all to enrich his Big Oil and his wealthy polluting allies. Workers, families, and communities would pay the price, left choking on dirty air. No one is above the law in this country. Not even the president. We\u2019ll fight this lawlessness in court.<\/p>\n
Governor Gavin Newsom<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWith the unlawful rescission of the Endangerment Finding, President Trump and his EPA have abandoned their most important mission: protecting the health and welfare of the American people. The science doesn\u2019t lie: Climate change and GHG emissions are harming public health and causing devastating and ever-worsening disasters. Our communities have felt the impact of destructive wildfires, watched families run from burning homes, inhaling toxic fumes, and we\u2019ve seen entire communities wash away in severe floods. The President can\u2019t keep his head in the sand \u2014 climate change is real and decades of settled science warned us this was coming,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Rob Bonta.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cLet me be clear: This unlawful rescission is not about cutting \u2019red tape.\u2019 The president is choosing Big Oil profits over our health, and betting that the American people won\u2019t notice the cost until the bill comes due at the expense of our communities. We will not stand idly by while the federal government abdicates its responsibility to protect the public and follow the law. California will vigorously defend the Endangerment Finding in court and continue to fight to protect our communities, our health, and our natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump Administration is failing to protect everyday people across this country in countless ways, including through their unlawful attempts to unwind decades of science-based policy,\u201d\u00a0said Yana Garcia, Secretary for Environmental Protection<\/strong>. \u201cThe truth is that climate change presents immediate threats to human health and to our environment, and rising temperatures threaten the welfare of American families by increasing household costs. California remains committed to climate action and will keep fighting back because our people and our future deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump Administration, in recklessly repealing the Endangerment Finding, is abdicating their responsibility to protect American lives,\u201d\u00a0said California Air Resources Board Chair Lauren Sanchez.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cCalifornia isn\u2019t going to sit back and watch while the federal government dismantles critical public health protections \u2014 we\u2019re going to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFederal air quality regulations are critical to protecting human health from the impacts of climate change,\u201d\u00a0said Dr. Rita Nguyen, California\u2019s Assistant Health Officer.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cClimate change is a serious threat to human health as California experiences more frequent, more severe, and longer-lasting episodes of extreme heat. For instance, during the September 2022 record-breaking 10-day heat wave in California, there was a 5 percent increase in deaths \u2013 395 more deaths than would be expected. Additionally, climate-related hazards like heat, wildfires, extreme weather, and poor air quality can disproportionately harm the mental health and well-being of children and youth, contributing to anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, decreases in learning, and other challenges that can have long-term consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n If this reckless decision survives legal challenge, it will mean more deadly wildfires, more extreme heat deaths, and more climate-driven floods and droughts \u2014 all while Trump\u2019s political appointees, many of whom were handpicked by the oil and gas industry, dismiss the overwhelming science that has protected public health for decades.<\/p>\n The cost of Trump\u2019s dereliction of duty will be measured in human lives and economic devastation. In California alone, wildfires fueled by rising temperatures have killed hundreds, destroyed entire communities and tens of thousands of homes, and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. Extreme heat is now the deadliest climate impact, responsible for more annual deaths than wildfires and floods. Nationwide, in 2024 alone, the United States saw 27 separate climate-driven weather disasters exceeding $1 billion each \u2014 the highest number ever recorded \u2014 claiming more than 560 American lives and causing $183 billion in damages.<\/p>\n In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are pollutants subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. Two years later, the U.S. EPA formalized that ruling with the 2009 Endangerment Finding \u2014 the\u00a0scientific recognition<\/a>\u00a0that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, and the legal premise for federal regulation on climate pollution from vehicles, the largest source of U.S. emissions. Since repealing the 2009 Endangerment Finding for vehicles, EPA has since put a target on similar findings underlying power plant and aircraft carbon regulations as well.<\/p>\n From the moment the Trump administration signaled its intent to reverse that determination, California pushed back. In July 2025, the U.S. EPA proposed to repeal the Endangerment Finding. In September 2025, Governor Newsom\u00a0submitted a formal comment<\/a>\u00a0to the EPA opposing the repeal \u2014 calling it a dereliction of duty, a moral abdication, and a betrayal of the agency\u2019s mission. That same month,\u00a0California joined 24 states<\/a>\u00a0representing 55 percent of the U.S. population in opposing the proposal. The California Air Resources Board\u00a0filed detailed comments\u00a0<\/a>debunking the fraudulent Department of Energy study the EPA was using to justify the repeal.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u00a0repealed<\/a>\u00a0the Endangerment Finding anyway \u2014 declaring the Republican Party the pro-pollution party. Today, California is taking them to court.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s betrayal of science is part of a sustained campaign to weaken environmental protections, undermine public health, and stifle American innovation. Repealing the Endangerment Finding fits squarely within the broader pattern of actions that prioritize polluters over people and ideology over evidence. To name a few, the Trump administration has:<\/p>\n Weakened<\/a>\u00a0how air pollution rules account for public health, no longer considering the economic costs of harm to human health.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Proposed weaker<\/a>\u00a0fuel economy standards, a move that will force Americans to spend billions more at the pump, while poisoning the air in our communities.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Allowed<\/a>\u00a0coal-burning power plants to emit higher levels of toxic pollutants, including neurotoxins like mercury.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Ended<\/a>\u00a0federal investments in electric vehicle markets, undercutting U.S. competitiveness and domestic manufacturing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Imposed<\/a>\u00a0regulatory chaos so severe that companies canceled tens of billions of dollars in clean energy investments in 2025, costing American jobs and slowing innovation.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Beyond rolling back protections, the administration has gone further by attacking scientific integrity itself. Donald Trump has also:<\/p>\n Censored<\/a>\u00a0climate science information and\u00a0restricted<\/a>\u00a0federal agencies from using basic terms like \u201cgreen\u201d or \u201cemissions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Enabled<\/a>\u00a0polluters to stop disclosing emissions data to the public.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Fired<\/a>\u00a0scientists,\u00a0canceled<\/a>\u00a0research programs,\u00a0deleted<\/a>\u00a0scientific datasets, and began to\u00a0dismantle<\/a>\u00a0the national climate research lab in Colorado.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Removed<\/a>\u00a0public-facing climate information from government websites.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Allowed<\/a>\u00a0Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a government-sanctioned fossil fuel industry lobbyist, to waste taxpayer dollars on\u00a0an anti-science Department of Energy report<\/a>\u00a0authored by handpicked climate deniers, so riddled with falsehoods that\u00a085 independent scientists<\/a>\u00a0published a\u00a0400+ page takedown<\/a>, forcing the Trump administration to disband the effort weeks later.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Withdrawn<\/a>\u00a0from the United Nations climate framework and 65 other international organizations, surrendering America\u2019s leadership on the world stage, weakening our ability to compete in the economy of the future, and ceding jobs and economic ground to China.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Weakened<\/a>\u00a0U.S. global leadership in the race to cut pollution, create jobs, and build the industries of the future by exiting the Paris Agreement for the second time.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Through the\u00a0U.S. Climate Alliance<\/a>\u00a0and other coalitions, California continues to challenge the administration\u2019s climate denial and abandonment of science.<\/p>\n Pollution is down and the economy is up. Greenhouse gas emissions in California are down\u00a021% since 2000<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 even as the state\u2019s GDP increased 81% in that same time period, all while becoming the world\u2019s fourth largest economy.<\/p>\n California also continues to set clean energy records. In 2023, the state was powered by\u00a0two-thirds clean energy<\/a>, the largest economy in the world to achieve this level. California has also run on 100% clean electricity for part of the day\u00a0almost every day this year<\/a>.<\/p>\nHow we got here<\/h2>\n
Trump\u2019s war on science and public health<\/h2>\n
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California\u2019s climate leadership<\/h2>\n