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Coalition of States, Counties, and Cities Across the Country Mount Legal Challenge Opposing EPA’s Unlawful Rollback
LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel today joined a coalition of 24 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 12 cities and counties to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s unlawful attempt to rescind its 2009 Endangerment Finding (PDF) – the agency’s seminal determination that greenhouse gas pollution from motor vehicles drives climate change and endangers public health and welfare. Attorney General Nessel released a video accompanying this annoucement.
“The EPA’s unlawful and ill-conceived rescission of the greenhouse gas Endangerment Finding poses an immediate danger to Michigan’s environment and economy,” said Attorney General Nessel. “The wildfire smoke polluting our air and the harm being done to our state’s winter tourism industry and farmers who rely on stable seasons to make a living are just some of the ways we’re already seeing climate change impact our daily lives. While the EPA has chosen to abandon its legal responsibility to protect the public from the dangers posed by greenhouse gases from motor vehicles, I refuse to do the same. I am challenging this rescission to make sure the agency does its job to protect the health and well-being of Michiganders and all Americans.”
The 2009 Endangerment Finding was the direct result of the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA (PDF), which confirmed that the Clean Air Act authorizes EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that endanger public health and welfare. Based on years of rigorous scientific analysis and review, in 2009 EPA determined that emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that harms public health and the environment. EPA then set federal standards to limit those emissions, which have led to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.
Now, almost two decades later, EPA has rushed a rulemaking process to rescind the Endangerment Finding and repeal all motor vehicles greenhouse gas standards, blatantly disregarding both law and science. EPA’s rescission is based on flawed interpretations of the law — previously rejected by the Supreme Court — that the agency lacks authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The rescission also ignores decades of peer-reviewed scientific evidence confirming the reality and severity of climate change. By eliminating all existing and future federal vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards, this rule violates EPA’s legal obligations, fundamental principles of administrative law, and its mission to protect public health and welfare.
Today’s lawsuit is the latest action taken by Attorney General Nessel and the coalition in their ongoing effort to fight back against EPA’s unlawful rescission of the 2009 Endangerment Finding. In the fall of 2025, 23 attorneys general and seven counties and cities submitted two comment letters urging EPA to abandon the proposal, arguing that it would violate settled law, clear Supreme Court precedent, and scientific consensus, endanger all Americans—particularly communities already disproportionately burdened by environmental harms—and cause unprecedented disruption to the regulatory landscape with catastrophic consequences for residents, industries, natural resources, and public investments.
Attorney General Nessel is joined in filing this challenge by the attorneys general of: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. In addition, this challenge is joined by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro; City of Boston, Massachusetts; City of Chicago, Illinois; City of Cleveland, Ohio; City of Columbus, Ohio; City and County of Denver, Colorado; City of Los Angeles, California; City of New York, New York; City and County of San Francisco, California; County of Santa Clara, California; and Harris County, Texas.
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