Leaders promise to fight back with court challenges as Trump rescinds finding foundational to US climate rules
Climate leaders gathered outside the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters on Wednesday to condemn the Trump administration’s plans to repeal the legal finding underpinning all federal climate regulations, and promised to fight against the rollback.
“This is corruption, plain and simple. Old fashioned, dirty political corruption,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, senator for Rhode Island, at the rally. “This is an agency that has been so infiltrated by the corrupt fossil fuel industry that it has turned an agency of government into the weapon of the fossil fuel polluters.”
The rescinding of the 2009 endangerment finding will be finalized by Donald Trump and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters this week. The seminal ruling established the legal basis to regulate planet-warming pollution under the Clean Air Act.
The Trump administration has defended its rollbacks of regulations, arguing they can protect the environment while boosting the economy and lowering energy costs.
