Environmental and health organizations around the country recently filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for rolling back climate protections. The EPA plans to eliminate greenhouse gas standards that regulate power plants as well as car and truck pollution.
One of the organizations suing the EPA is Clean Wisconsin. It says a U.S. Supreme Court case that determined climate pollution impacts human health is critical to the lawsuit.
That decision resulted in something called the Endangerment Finding.
“The Endangerment Finding really started with a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court [decision] — Massachusetts v. EPA — and in that case the Supreme Court decided that the EPA could determine whether or not climate change was a a danger to human health, and if it was, then they were obligated to do something about that under the Clean Air Act,” says Amy Barrilleaux, communications director with Clean Wisconsin.
The EPA then did a lot of research, “And in 2009 came out with the Endangerment Finding that [said]: yes, greenhouse gases are a danger to human health.” Barrilleaux says.
Clean Wisconsin points to more data that supports that fact:
- Since the 1980s, Wisconsin has seen a three-fold increase in weather-disaster events that cause at least a billion dollars in damage, including droughts, flooding and severe storms.
- Tick-borne illnesses have exploded in Wisconsin as milder winters extend tick-active seasons. Reported cases of Lyme disease in the state have quadrupled in the past 20 years.
- In recent summers, Wisconsin has at times experienced the worst air quality in the country, and even the world, due to toxic smoke from wildfires in the Western United States and Canada. Climate change has created hotter, drier conditions in these areas, increasing the frequency and intensity of these fires.
The EPA also plans to eliminate clean vehicle standards.
“And if we roll those back, we’re going be experiencing some real problems here in Wisconsin and across the country,” Barrilleaux says.
The lawsuit was filed February 18 in Washington, D.C. Circuit.
“If anybody looks at the legal facts that are at play and the mission of the EPA under the Clean Air Act, then this is clearly an illegal move,” Barrilleaux says.
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