Supreme Court Rejects Challenges to EPA’s Endangerment Finding

(Washington, D.C. – December 11, 2023) In an order issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear challenges to EPA’s Clean Air Act responsibility to address climate pollution. 

Two organizations had challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Endangerment Finding – the foundational, science-anchored determination that carbon dioxide, methane and other climate pollutants endanger human health and the environment – and lost in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Today the Supreme Court announced it will not hear an appeal of that case. 

“Today’s decision is welcome news as EPA has a bedrock responsibility under our nation’s clean air laws to protect the American people from the clear and present danger of climate pollution,” said Vickie Patton, General Counsel of Environmental Defense Fund, which was a party to the case. “EPA’s determination that climate pollution harms people’s health and well-being is solidly anchored in science and the law, which EPA and the courts have found numerous times in the face of repeated and flawed attacks. We must keep working to protect all people from extreme weather and other pollution-fueled harms of the climate crisis, and we have no time to waste.” 

The Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council and the FAIR Energy Foundation – two groups known for denying climate science – challenged the Endangerment Finding in court. In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed their lawsuits for lack of standing, and after finding the groups’ arguments were “inadequate, erroneous, and deficient.” The D.C. Circuit decision also pointed out that the court had previously rejected numerous other challenges to the Endangerment Finding. 

The groups then asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the case, but today the Court denied their request. (see the Supreme Court’s website, cert denied in 23-418 CONCERNED HOUSE. ELEC., ET AL. V. EPA) 

EDF was a party to the case and submitted a brief strongly defending EPA’s science-based determination of the Endangerment Finding in the D.C. Circuit with the American Lung Association, the American Public Health, Association, the Appalachian Mountain Club, Clean Air Council, Clean Wisconsin, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

Related: Federal Court Hears Arguments about Secret Report that Trump Administration Used in Attack on Climate Protections