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What to know about the lawsuit challenging the EPA's repeal of the endangerment finding
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The predicted snow we didn't get yesterday could still come for us tomorrow.
But first, the news:
Endangered finding: A coalition of health and environmental groups — including the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation — filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging the Trump administration's recent decision to rescind the "endangerment finding." Since 2009, the landmark finding has served as the basis for the Environmental Protection Agency’s legal authority to regulate greenhouse gases as a threat to public health. However, the Trump administration overturned the finding last week — effectively gutting many greenhouse gas rules. "For the head agency in this country charged with protecting public health and the environment to say we're not going to do anything to address the greatest existential threat that we currently face is a pretty stunning turn of events," Kate Sinding Daly, a lawyer for the CLF, told WBUR's Amy Sokolow. The lawsuit now kicks off a legal battle that could end up at the Supreme Court.
- The local angle: The endangerment finding's roots trace back to another legal case involving Massachusetts that went before the Supreme Court. In 2007, Massachusetts led a coalition of states that sued the EPA, arguing the agency should regulate greenhouse gases under the 1970 Clean Air Act. A few years earlier, the Bush administration had said it didn't have that authority. But the states — led by then-Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General James Milkey — made the case that the Clean Air Act broadly required the EPA to regulate air pollutants that could have negative public health effects. In the end, they got a mixed decision from the court. But the ruling said the federal government, if it wanted, could use the Clean Air Act to enforce limits on greenhouse gases.
- What the finding did: Two years later, after President Obama took office, his EPA formally issued the endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act. It's not a law or a regulation, but rather an administrative finding that greenhouse gases were a public health threat. That allowed the federal government to implement emissions limits for power plants, cars and trucks and the oil industry.
- Could this be a trap? The repeal of the endangerment finding was expected to provoke a legal fight. The CLF hopes their lawsuit — filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. — leads to a judge ordering the government to "repeal its rescission," Sinding Daly said. However, she believes the Trump administration's strategy is to take the fight to the current, more conservative Supreme Court in the hopes of a ruling that not only upholds their rescission but also "ties the hands" of future administrations so they can't reinstate it. "Obviously, we hope that's something that won't happen," she said. "That would require, essentially, the Supreme Court reversing its own finding in Mass. v. EPA from 2007, which is something that happens extremely rarely. So the strategy here is to fight and to make the arguments that this is in fact not a legal action."
Speaking of reversals: The FDA says it will review Moderna's new mRNA-based flu vaccine after all, changing its position and resolving a dispute that broke out last week. Moderna announced yesterday that the two sides had settled on a compromise, in which the Cambridge-based drugmaker will pursue separate approvals for the vaccine based on age: full approval for adults 50 to 64 and accelerated approval for those 65 and older. It also agreed to conduct an additional study once the vaccine is on the market. Moderna's stock shot up by more than 6% on the news.
ICYMI: Foxborough town officials reiterated Tuesday night that they won't issue the necessary permits for World Cup games at Gillette Stadium until someone answers their question: Who's going to cover their $7.8 million bill for providing security for the matches? Town officials have set a St. Patrick's Day deadline for the answer.
P.S.— Team USA's dominant women's hockey team (featuring a few local faces) takes on Canada for the gold medal today. You can watch live at 1 p.m. on Peacock and the USA Network. (In the meantime, watch skimo make its Olympic debut in the middle of a snowstorm this morning.)
