"Widely anticipated legal challenges question the agency’s reversal of the 2009 endangerment finding. The decision is “reckless, illogical and ignores the vast majority of public comments,” plaintiffs say."
"Two lawsuits filed Wednesday in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals mark the beginning of a rocky legal road for the Environmental Protection Agency following its reversal of a 2009 rule underpinning federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
The challenges include a lawsuit brought against both the EPA and its administrator, Lee Zeldin, by a coalition of 17 health and environmental groups, as well as a suit filed on behalf of 18 youths across the United States.
Created in the wake of a 2007 Supreme Court decision, Massachusetts v. EPA, which unambiguously held that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act, the 2009 endangerment finding states that current or projected concentrations of greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.”
Reversing the 17-year-old scientific finding effectively undermines the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from sectors such as motor vehicles and power plants."
Anika Jane Beamer reports for Inside Climate News February 18, 2026.
