New York City Joins National Coalition to Block EPA Rollback of Climate Protections

New York City has joined dozens of states and local governments in opposing a federal proposal to undo landmark climate protections, filing three comment letters and an amicus brief against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) move to rescind its 2009 “Endangerment Finding.”

The Endangerment Finding, issued after a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, established that greenhouse gas emissions — including from motor vehicles — endanger public health and welfare. The EPA’s new proposal, announced in August, would strip the agency of authority to regulate emissions and eliminate existing vehicle standards.

Mayor Eric Adams warned that the rollback would worsen natural disasters and harm public health. “Attempts to undermine scientific consensus should not be the basis for undoing regulations that protect lives, communities, and economies,” he said. Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant added that the move “manufactures a basis to reject overwhelming scientific consensus, endangering all Americans and all New Yorkers.”

The City’s filings argue that rescinding the finding violates settled law and Supreme Court precedent, and would expose millions to worsening climate impacts — from extreme heat to flooding. More than 500 New Yorkers die prematurely each year from heat-related causes, according to city data.

New York also joined a coalition challenging the Department of Energy’s Climate Working Group, whose report the EPA cited in its proposal. Critics say the group was unlawfully convened, stacked with climate skeptics, and produced a flawed report dismissing decades of peer-reviewed research.

The actions come at the start of Climate Week NYC, reinforcing the Adams administration’s broader climate agenda, which includes climate budgeting, zoning reforms for carbon neutrality, and major resilience projects like the $218 million coastal protection effort in Red Hook.