Every Democratic senator opposes EPA plan to axe endangerment finding

In a unanimous decision, the Democratic caucus in the Senate wrote a letter on Monday in opposition to the Trump administration’s proposal to axe a 2009 endangerment finding, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determination that concluded that the accumulation of six greenhouse gases posed a serious threat to public health.

The proposal would also repeal regulations for motor vehicles and engines. The determination helped set up the legal basis for U.S. climate policy, according to a press release.

The effort, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), comes after the Trump administration said it’d axe the finding in July. 

“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers. In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in July. “We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA's GHG emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide, which the finding never assessed independently, was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods.” 

The administration used studies authored and published by scientists who deny the existence of climate change to justify the decision. The scientists behind the studies have been trying to plant seeds of doubt about climate change among the scientific community for years, according to CNN. 

In response to the decision, the Democratic caucus on Monday said, “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,” they added.

The United States is the second-largest carbon emitter after China and has contributed the most to pollution out of any country in the world.