EDF Experts Join Hundreds of Americans at Virtual Forum, “Vigorously” Oppose Trump EPA Attacks on Endangerment Finding, Clean Car and Truck Standards

(August 20, 2025) Environmental Defense Fund experts joined hundreds of other Americans today to defend two vital climate and public health safeguards that the Trump EPA is trying to overturn. They testified at a virtual forum where EPA has improperly restricted the public’s access. Even under these unlawful constraints, hundreds of people have voiced their serious objections to the attacks on the Endangerment Finding and the Clean Car and Truck Standards.

EDF Senior Attorney Stephanie Jones testified about the Endangerment Finding – EPA’s determination, based on a mountain of science, that climate-altering pollution endangers public health. The longstanding Finding underpins commonsense steps the government has taken to protect people from the more powerful floods, more extreme heat waves, more frequent fires, higher insurance bills, and other hazards made worse by climate change. 

“EPA’s proposal to rescind the Endangerment Finding is a reckless act that has no basis in law, no basis in science, and is an attack on key protections for Americans against present and worsening climate-driven threats,” said Jones in her testimony. “It is a callous breach of our government’s responsibility to protect the American people from the devastation of climate pollution and EDF opposes it in the strongest terms.”

Jones also referred to a controversial, secretly produced report that EPA’s proposal to overturn the Endangerment Finding relies on heavily, noting that the scientific evidence about climate change has grown stronger since the Endangerment Finding was first announced, “affirming what so many Americans are experiencing firsthand.”

“The administration tried to twist these clear and undeniable facts by secretly and illegally commissioning a report by hand-picked climate skeptics, but Americans know the truth: these disasters are devastating communities across the nation and costing lives,” Jones testified. 

EDF Attorney Andy Su testified about the risks from EPA’s proposal to overturn the Clean Car and Truck Standards. 

“Rescinding EPA’s life-saving vehicle standards would be one of the most damaging actions the agency has ever taken and would lead to higher levels of dangerous pollution, more premature deaths, rising insurance and fuel costs, and would place millions more people directly in harm’s way,” said Su in his testimony. 

Su pointed out that clean cars and trucks save American families and businesses money — an average of $6,000 over the life of a new car or passenger – and that the administration’s own analysis shows that EPA’s proposal would make gas more expensive – up to 75 cents a gallon more in 2050. He also noted that reversing the Clean Car and Truck Standards would jeopardize 195,000 EV-related jobs across the country, and would mean tons more climate pollution as well as more “smog and soot-forming pollution that would lead to 12,000 more premature deaths.”

“EDF is vigorously opposed to this attempt to erase vital clean vehicle standards, which is at odds with EPA’s long-standing and solemn responsibility to protect public health and would lead to more pollution, more danger, and higher costs for Americans,” Su testified. 

The Trump EPA has not provided an open or transparent hearing as required by law. EPA’s failure to ensure the rights of the public to participate fully in a meaningful public hearing is a serious violation of law. Even under these severe constraints, hundreds of people have tried to present their serious objections to EPA’s proposals in the virtual forum, which EPA was forced to extend to four days. The forum will continue through Friday and the agency will accept written comments through September 22.

Read Stephanie Jones’s full testimony here.

Read Andy Su’s full testimony here.