WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the co-chairs of the U.S. Climate Alliance — California Governor Gavin Newsom and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers — issued the following statement in response to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions to shutter its scientific research office and repeal a longstanding determination on the causes and harms of climate change:
“Americans deserve the truth from their federal government about the climate crisis. No amount of burying research or firing scientists will change the facts: Greenhouse gas pollution causes climate change and endangers our health and welfare — period. From devastating floods to extreme heat to catastrophic wildfire, Americans are seeing the deadly impacts of climate change with their own eyes, and we won’t be deceived by the Trump administration’s reckless abandonment of science and the law.”
Today’s action by EPA would rescind the agency’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, pose a threat to public health and welfare based on decades of research and thousands of peer-reviewed publications. The finding was further affirmed by the federal government’s Fourth National Climate Assessment, published during the first Trump administration, which found that evidence of human-caused climate change is “overwhelming” and that climate-related impacts “increasingly threaten the health and well-being of the American people” by increasing extreme weather, impacting air quality, spreading new diseases, and changing the availability of food and water, among other harms.
The rescission comes less than two weeks after EPA moved to lay off hundreds of workers and dismantle its Office of Research and Development, the agency’s science research arm charged with conducting research to provide the foundation for credible decision-making to protect Americans’ health and safety.
Additionally, EPA’s proposal would eliminate all federal protections against greenhouse gas pollution from cars and trucks, following the agency’s efforts to dismantle state clean vehicle programs earlier this year. Transportation remains the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and collectively across Alliance states and territories.
Launched on June 1, 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by President Trump’s initial decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60% of the U.S. economy and 55% of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28% by 2025, 50-52% by 2030, and 61-66% by 2035, all below 2005 levels, and collectively achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as practicable, and no later than 2050.
The Alliance’s states and territories will continue to advance innovative and impactful climate solutions to grow the economy, create jobs, and protect public health, and have a long record of action and results. In fact, the Alliance reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 19% between 2005 and 2022, while increasing collective GDP by 30%, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal by reducing collective GHG emissions 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. The coalition’s states and territories are employing more workers in the clean energy sector, achieving lower levels of dangerous air pollutants, and preparing more effectively for climate impacts and executing more pre-disaster planning than the rest of the country.
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