THE FUTURE OF THE ENDANGERMENT FINDING
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced plans to repeal the Endangerment Finding – the scientific determination that greenhouse gas pollution harms human health and welfare. For more than 15 years, the Endangerment Finding has been the foundation of clean air standards that have reduced pollution across the country. Its repeal would dismantle core environmental protections – putting lives, communities, and climate progress at risk.
Members of America is All In are speaking out about the urgent need to preserve standards that regulate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
America Is All In Managing Co-Chair Gina McCarthy joined fellow former EPA Administrators Christine Todd Whitman and William K. Reilly to call on the agency to protect public health and the environment by following scientific evidence and fulfilling its legal obligations.
Organizations that support and represent mayors and local leaders from across the country, including Climate Mayors and C40 Cities, stressed how the agency has failed to consider how leaving air pollution unregulated will harm cities. The U.S. Climate Alliance expressed states and Governors deep concerns about how a repeal of the Endangerment Finding ignores the consensus on climate change and threatens harm to Americans.
Companies, investors, and trade groups organized by Ceres and E2 outlined the economic case for maintaining EPA’s ability to set federal pollution standards and manage climate change.
Public school districts from across the country and other education leaders, including the American Federation of Teachers and Undauntedk12, also submitted a public comment emphasizing how the finding’s protections have delivered benefits for children including cleaner air and lower asthma rates. They were joined by Second Nature, a network accelerating climate action in higher education, in safeguarding the integrity of scientific findings to ensure people’s health and safety.
What is the Endangerment Finding?
A Critical Safeguard for Public Health
The Endangerment Finding is a formal 2009 EPA determination that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) endanger public health and welfare. It gives the EPA the legal authority to regulate and protect people from these emissions under the Clean Air Act. Now, the EPA is planning to repeal this finding – threatening to strip away the basis for regulating climate pollution.
How We Got Here
2007: Massachusetts v. EPA – The Supreme Court rules that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and if they are a danger to public health, the EPA has the power to regulate them.
2009: The EPA uses decades of scientific research and evidence to conclude that these greenhouse gases do endanger public health and welfare. The Endangerment Finding is issued.
2009-2024: This finding has been the basis for numerous EPA regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and other polluting sources.
July 2025: The EPA initiated a formal reconsideration of the Endangerment Finding, with the goal of reversing it. This move is also part of a broader effort that includes rolling back vehicle emissions standards for light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles and engines.
How does this impact American communities?
If the Endangerment Finding is overturned, it will impact efforts to combat climate change -- leading to more pollution, more extreme weather, and higher health and economic costs in communities across the U.S.
Extreme Weather
In 2024 alone, the United States experiences 27 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, threatening American infrastructure, local economies, and the safety of vulnerable communities.
In 2024 alone, the United States experiences 27 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, threatening American infrastructure, local economies, and the safety of vulnerable communities.
Public Health
A 2023 report from the EPA found that with 2°C and 4°C of warming, annual cases of asthma could increase 4% and 11%, respectively.
A 2023 report from the EPA found that with 2°C and 4°C of warming, annual cases of asthma could increase 4% and 11%, respectively.
Economic Costs
American families and communities are already paying the price of climate change through rising insurance premiums, lost crops and wages, and higher health care bills.
American families and communities are already paying the price of climate change through rising insurance premiums, lost crops and wages, and higher health care bills.