Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to challenge the US Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to scrap clean air standards.

Howard Learner, chief executive officer & executive director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) revealed the lawsuit had been filed in the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging  what he described as “the Trump EPA’s illegal and misguided repeal of the sound science-based federal greenhouse gases Endangerment Finding, and repeal of sensible clean car and clean truck standards”.

He added: “People in Midwest communities are already facing climate change realities of extreme heat, more intense storms, and rising health and insurance costs. ELPC is stepping up to challenge EPA’s abandonment of its legal responsibilities to protect the American people’s health and well-being.”

The EPA’s longstanding determinations that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contribute to air pollution that endangers public health have required, as a matter of law and sound policy under the Clean Air Act, the federal government to regulate GHG pollution from vehicles and other industrial sources since 2009.

Learner added: “The US EPA’s recent actions trump political ideology over Congress’s laws, sound science, public health and common sense. When proposing to repeal the Endangerment Finding, the agency first relied on a cherry-picked, biased scientific assessment that ignored overwhelming peer-reviewed fact-based evidence of climate change realities and harms. EPA now continues to hide behind a flimsy legal argument, ignoring real-world climate change realities.”

The move was announced by the EPA’s administrator Lee Zeldin, in the White House saying the action will save the US taxpayers  over $1.3 trillion.

He added it would eliminate “both the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding and all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond”.

Zeldin said: “The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans.

“Referred to by some as the ‘Holy Grail’ of the ‘climate change religion,’ the Endangerment Finding is now eliminated. The Trump EPA is strictly following the letter of the law, returning commonsense to policy, delivering consumer choice to Americans and advancing the American Dream.”

The EPA added: “The final rule will save Americans over $1.3 trillion by removing the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal GHG emission standards for motor vehicles, and repeals associated compliance programs, credit provisions, and reporting obligations that exist solely to support the vehicle GHG regulatory regime. Americans will have certainty, flexibility and regulatory relief, allowing companies to plan appropriately, and empowering American families.”

Learner continued: “Here in the Midwest, the real-world impacts of climate change are impossible to ignore – extreme heat, derechos, and more intense and more damaging storms. By repealing the evidence-based Endangerment Finding, the Trump EPA is creating uncertainty for businesses and communities, leaving Americans exposed to worse human health threats and rising insurance costs. The Trump EPA is abandoning its core mission – protect public health and the environment for all Americans.

“EPA’s repeal of these important protections is a stark and legally unjustified departure from decades of scientific consensus and legal precedent, raising serious concerns about the nation’s ability to address the pollution causing climate change and to safeguard public health and our environment.”