In comments to EPA, the Alliance expressed deep concerns about the agency’s proposal to repeal its longstanding determination on the harms of greenhouse gas pollution (2009 Endangerment Finding) and to eliminate all protections against this pollution from vehicles, the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
This proposal abandons EPA’s legal obligations under the Clean Air Act, ignores the scientific consensus on greenhouse gases and climate change, and threatens great harm to Americans. Each of the rationales offered for these actions, including numerous proposed alternatives, is fundamentally flawed. The Alliance urges EPA to withdraw this proposal and return to its mission: protecting human health and the environment based on science, facts, and the law.
Read the Alliance’s full letter here.
Launched in 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by the U.S. federal government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28 percent by 2025, 50-52 percent by 2030, and 61-66 percent 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 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 latest data shows that as of 2023, the Alliance has reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent below 2005 levels, while increasing collective GDP by 34 percent, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal of reducing collective greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
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