The Dangers of Eliminating the Endangerment Finding

STEWARDS OF OUR EARTH

All of God’s Creation

Social Justice Committee, Holy Cross Parish, Mt. Airy, March 1, 2026

The endangerment finding serves as the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2009 issued the endangerment finding, a scientific determination that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, pose a danger to human health and welfare. It stemmed from a directive by the Supreme Court in its landmark 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that ruled greenhouse gas emissions are air pollutants subject to EPA regulation under the Clean Air Act….

The endangerment finding has been the bedrock of nearly all federal climate-related regulations and policies in the past 16 years, including limits on emissions from vehicles, coal-fired power plants, and other polluting industrial sources…. 

Eliminating the endangerment finding ‘places our country and our planet on a dangerous path,’ the Catholic Climate Covenant and North American chapter of the Laudato Si' Movement said in a joint statement.” (EarthBeat Weekly, A Project of National Catholic Reporter, 2/13/26)

“The case for regulating greenhouse gas emissions has only gotten stronger over the past decade. The last 10 years have been the hottest on record amid increasing extreme weather events, with states like Colorado, New York, Texas and California suffering from deadly heat waves, wildfires, and flooding.” ( Jessica A. Knoblauch, Earthjustice, 2/22/26) 

Thousands of scientific studies have looked at climate change and its effects on human health in the past 5 years, and they predominantly show climate change is increasingly dangerous to people. (AP, MedPage Today, 2/13/26)

“The finding’s reversal will affect everyone, but ‘overburdened communities [who often live closest to toxic facilities], which are typically communities of color, Indigenous communities and low-income communities, they will, again, suffer most from these actions,’ said Matthew Tejada, senior vice president for environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former deputy with the EPA’s office for environmental justice.” (Dorany Pineda and Seth Borenstein, Associated Press, 2/20/26)

Susan Gunn, director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, said in a statement that revoking the endangerment finding "demonstrates again that the climate crisis is a moral crisis."

"As people of faith, we know the 'cry of the earth' and the 'cry of the poor' are one," she said, citing a passage from Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si'. "By dismantling these protections, the United States abdicates its duty to the most vulnerable. We must return to science-based policy to protect our common home." (Brian Rowe, National Catholic Reporter, 2/13/26)

The EPA has one job to protect people. Demand Congress make the agency uphold its responsibility to our communities. (Sierra Club, 2/12/26)

Comments on this column may be directed to the Social Justice Committee at socialjustice@holycrossphl.org. Click here for column archive.