California Governor Gavin Newsom has vowed to take legal action against the federal government after President Donald Trump’s administration decided on February 12 to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) landmark climate findings.
Critics say the ruling could seriously weaken environmental protections by overturning the EPA’s “endangerment finding,” which has been the legal basis for regulating man-made greenhouse gas emissions for nearly 20 years.
“Donald Trump’s administration is falsely claiming that greenhouse gases are not a threat to public health — they’re breaking the law to once again pander to the oil industry,” Newsom said on X (formerly Twitter), adding that California will fight this “illegal action” in court.
In a separate statement from Newsom’s office, the governor said the decision betrays the American people and cements the GOP’s status as the “pro-polluter” party.
“If this reckless decision survives legal challenges, it will lead to more deadly wildfires, more deaths from extreme heat, more climate-related floods and droughts, and greater threats to communities across the country — while the EPA rejects overwhelming science that has protected public health for decades,” it said in a statement released a day earlier.
What did Trump say about this move?
The Trump administration announced Thursday that it is abandoning a longstanding scientific finding that greenhouse gases are a major risk to public health and human well-being, dismantling a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy.
President Donald Trump announced the decision at the White House, casting doubt on the scientific basis of the original finding. “This decision had no basis in fact,” he said.
The 2009 Endangerment Finding was the main legal reason why the US government could set climate regulations. It allowed authorities to limit greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, factories and power plants, as these sources are known to cause global warming.
By overturning the finding, Trump and his administration have essentially removed the central legal rationale under which a wide range of climate rules have been enacted over the past decade and a half.
Meanwhile, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin defended the decision to overturn the finding, calling it a rejection of what he described as “onerous and unnecessary” climate mandates.
Just last month, Trump ordered the United States to withdraw from dozens of international bodies, including the world’s central climate treaty and the UN’s leading climate science agency.