New York AG sues to uphold national emissions rules

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of 40 states, counties, cities, and state agencies sued on Thursday to stop the federal government from erasing climate change regulations. James wants to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding.

That scientific and legal decision found that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. It was the foundation for the nation’s environmental rules under the federal Clean Air Act, but EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin rescinded it in February. He then eliminated federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for motor vehicles.

James filed the petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit alongside Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut. They asked the court to reinstate the endangerment finding and throw out the emissions repeal. The lawsuit argued that the rollback ignored science, dismissed evidence, and violated the Clean Air Act.

James and the rest of the coalition claimed the feds are reheating legal arguments debunked by U.S. Supreme Court back in 2007. They accused President Donald Trump’s administration of ignoring Americans who need help dealing with climate emergencies like storms, floods, cold snaps, and heat waves.

“The Trump administration has chosen denial, repealing critical protections that are foundational to the federal government’s response to climate change,” James said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “We will not let the federal government abandon its responsibility to the people.”

Reached for comment on Friday, the EPA dismissed the lawsuit as partisan posturing, accusing the coalition of running to the press before formally filing it. “It illustrates that for them, this is not about the law or the merits of any argument,” a spokesperson for the agency said. “They are clearly motivated by politics.”

The EPA maintained that they reviewed recent SCOTUS decisions—specifically “West Virginia v. EPA” and “Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo”—to make the case that the agency has no power under Section 202 of the Clean Air Act to regulate motor vehicle emissions to fight climate change. “In the absence of such authority, the Endangerment Finding is not valid, and EPA cannot retain the regulations that resulted from it,” the agency stated. “Congress never intended to give EPA authority to impose [greenhouse gas] regulations for cars and trucks.”

Zeldin, a former Republican congressmember and state legislator from Long Island, defended dropping the endangerment finding last week, calling it the “single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.” He said, “The Trump EPA is strictly following the letter of the law, returning commonsense to policy, delivering consumer choice to Americans and advancing the American Dream.”

Zeldin favors deregulation to increase energy production and lower corporate costs. He has argued that vehicle emission mandates and off-cycle credits—like incentives for automatic engine start/stop features—restricted consumer choice and imposed trillions in hidden costs. The EPA estimated that eliminating the endangerment finding and its associated rules would save American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion overall while making new vehicles $2,400 cheaper.

According to the EPA under Trump and Zeldin, the Obama administration relied on “legal fictions” to advance an ideological agenda, insisting that major policies with major economic consequences must go through Congress. Last week, the agency moved to ease limits on power plant emissions and freeze a Citibank account holding $20 billion in clean energy grants from the federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

While James fights to preserve national emissions rules, environmentalists are roasting New York Governor Kathy Hochul for her ongoing push to delay the state’s own climate mandates. Critics like Alex Patterson of Public Power NY accused state leaders of mimicking the federal government’s tactics to keep fossil fuel infrastructure online.

Take a look at the lawsuit below:

New York AG sues to uphold national emissions rules

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