SEEC Leads 154-Member Letter to EPA Highlighting Climate Change-Impact Stories Across the Nation
Washington, D.C. – The leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), including Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Quigley, and Paul Tonko and Vice Chairs Reps. Don Beyer, Suzanne Bonamici, Sean Casten, Mike Levin, and Chellie Pingree, led a public comment letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin in opposition to the EPA’s proposal to rescind the landmark 2009 Endangerment Finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. A total of 154 Members of Congress called on Administrator Zeldin to stop his attacks on pollution protections for the American people.
As an addendum to the public comment letter, the Members of Congress shared on-the-ground stories from their districts, highlighting the myriad of ways climate change is already impacting Americans in every corner of the nation. Given the scientific consensus surrounding climate change and its impacts already being felt around the nation, the EPA must provide answers to these lived experiences. Administrator Zeldin and his EPA must explain how rolling back the Endangerment Finding will protect Americans from the multitude of health and financial impacts of the climate crisis.
“Rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding—despite overwhelming scientific and firsthand evidence that greenhouse gas pollutants are a danger to human health and welfare—is not only an egregious escalation in climate denialism but also an obvious denial of the reality that millions of Americans now face,” wrote the 154 Members. “In addition to billions of dollars in damages, hundreds of lives lost, extensive peer-reviewed research, and overwhelming scientific consensus regarding these pollutants’ impacts, we are sharing the attached stories that we as Members of Congress have collected that reflect the impacts of climate change on our constituents. These are clear examples from our Congressional districts of how climate pollution ‘may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.’ We request that you respond to each and every one of these stories through the public comment process.”
Read the letter and climate impact stories here.
Background
On July 29, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced his formal proposal to rescind the Endangerment Finding – the scientific determination that greenhouse gases endanger human health and must be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Threatening the 2009 Endangerment Finding and EPA’s explicit authority to regulate greenhouse gases began as part of the Trump Administration’s Day One Executive Actions.
In response, SEEC sent a letter in January condemning the Trump Administration’s Day One Executive Actions that rolled back a multitude of critical pollution regulations and environmental protections, including the Endangerment Finding. In February, SEEC sent another letter condemning Administrator Zeldin’s reported recommendation to rescind the Endangerment Finding and urged him to follow the science and protect Americans from planet-warming pollution.
Last week, members of SEEC held a press conference at the Capitol to oppose EPA’s proposed rollbacks of the Endangerment Finding and vehicle emissions standards that will make our air dirtier and our lives more expensive.