Whitehouse, Schumer Lead Entire Democratic Caucus in Opposing Endangerment Finding Rollback

"This proposed action represents an abdication of EPA's duty, a violation of Supreme Court precedent and Congressional directive, and a blatant failure to protect the American people," wrote all 47 Democratic Senators

Washington, DC- Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), led the entire Democratic Caucus in demanding the Trump Administration withdraw its legally deficient and factually inaccurate proposed rollback of the endangerment finding. The rollback, if finalized, would constitute a formal denial by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare-a position that defies decades of scientific evidence, agency precedent, and Supreme Court rulings. The 47 Senators called the repeal of the climate and public health protection a "dereliction of duty" and a "blatant failure to protect the American people." Ranking Member Whitehouse also submitted a second comment in which he made clear EPA disregarded legal precedent and relied on factual inaccuracies to justify its proposal.

The endangerment finding is a 2009 scientific determination by EPA that greenhouse gases harm public health and welfare and is the legal basis for U.S. climate policy. It is grounded in extensive peer-reviewed science and confirmed by successive National Climate Assessments and reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Twice, EPA's scientific finding has withstood challenge at the D.C. Circuit, and both times, the Supreme Court declined to revisit the decision. Repealing the endangerment finding would ignore overwhelming scientific evidence and set the stage for rolling back air quality standards for power plants, airplanes, and more, making it easier to pollute.

"Scientists, financial experts, international governments, and the American public agree that climate change is a looming crisis. Greenhouse-gas driven climate change is driving extreme weather, flooding, erosion, sea-level rise, heat waves, drought, catastrophic wildfires, famine, smog pollution, and other disasters. These effects drive illness, hospital visits, and deaths, as well as displacement, asset loss, infrastructure damage, rising insurance premiums, declining home values, and long-term destabilization of the national economy …. And yet, in this proposal, EPA proposes to abdicate all responsibility to address this dangerous pollution," wrote the Senators.

Not only do EPA's actions fail to protect the American public from well-documented harms, but the agency's justifications "are directly at odds with Supreme Court precedent, Congressional directive, and the facts."

"The Court in [Massachusetts v. EPA] found that '[c]arbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons are without a doubt' air pollutants under the Clean Air Act's definition, and that '[t]he statute is unambiguous' on this point," wrote the Senators. And "[u]nder the clear terms of the Clean Air Act, EPA can avoid [making an endangerment finding] only if it determines that greenhouse gases do not contribute to climate change or if it provides some reasonable explanation as to why it cannot or will not exercise its discretion to determine whether they do."

To justify the repeal, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has relied on a Department of Energy pseudoscientific report written by known climate deniers with close ties to fossil fuel and polluting industry actors. Rife with clear errors, cherry-picked data, and misrepresented facts, the report peddles the lie that human-caused climate change is not a threat.

But scientists have known for over a century that greenhouse gases drive climate change. "In 1896, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius concluded that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities contribute to a global "greenhouse effect", driving global warming. One hundred and twenty-nine years later, the reality of human-caused climate change is not up for debate," wrote the Senators.

"Congress established the Clean Air Act to protect the public health and welfare, and the Supreme Court confirmed that this includes EPA's obligation to regulate greenhouse gases to the extent they endanger the same. The science is clear that they do so. We ask that you withdraw this proposal and reverse your decision to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding," concluded the Senators.

In addition to Ranking Member Whitehouse and Leader Schumer, the letter was signed by the entire Senate Democratic Caucus, including Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Alongside the caucus letter, Ranking Member Whitehouse also submitted a second comment excoriating the legal infirmities in EPA's proposed rollback. The Ranking Member described the proposal as "political rhetoric masquerading as legal and scientific reasoning" that "serves no purpose beyond regulatory corporate welfare to President Trump's fossil fuel industry donors, it's only beneficiaries." Not only does EPA's proposed rollback "rel[y] on untenable interpretations of the Clean Air Act and applicable precedent to justify its conclusions," but it ignores the "near-absolute scientific consensus that climate change poses dire threats to humanity's collective future and must be addressed."

Full text of the Democratic caucus comment is available here, and the Ranking Member's comment is available here.

The deadline to submit comments to EPA on the proposed rollback is September 22, 2025.