Richmond, Va. – Attorney General Jay Jones today joined a coalition of 24 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 12 cities and counties to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s unlawful attempt to rescind its 2009 Endangerment Finding – the agency’s seminal determination that greenhouse gas pollution from motor vehicles drives climate change and endangers public health and welfare.
For nearly two decades, Virginians have relied on evidence gathered by the scientific community on the dangers of greenhouse gas emissions to make adjustments that keep Virginians safe.
“While the Trump administration continues to try to convince us that up is down and down is up, we cannot allow them to dismiss decades of evidence gathered by the scientific community and ignore the very real harm to our health and welfare created by greenhouse gases,” Attorney General Jones said. “Regulating human-made greenhouse gas emissions is one way we can ensure that our water quality, the cleanup progress made in protecting the Chesapeake Bay, and our futures are protected. We cannot allow Donald Trump to continue to ignore scientific fact at the expense of our lives and our futures. My office will continue to use every legal tool available to protect the health and safety of our communities.”
The 2009 Endangerment Finding was the direct result of the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which confirmed that the Clean Air Act authorizes EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that endanger public health and welfare. Based on years of rigorous scientific analysis and review, EPA in 2009 determined that emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that harms public health and welfare. EPA then set federal standards, which have led to significant reductions in motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.
Now, almost two decades later, EPA has rushed a rulemaking process to rescind the Endangerment Finding and repeal all motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards, blatantly disregarding the law and science. EPA’s rescission is based on flawed interpretations of the law — previously rejected by the Supreme Court — that the agency lacks authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The rescission also ignores decades of peer-reviewed scientific evidence confirming the reality and severity of climate change. By eliminating all existing and future federal motor vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards, the rule violates EPA’s legal obligations, fundamental principles of administrative law, and the agency’s mission to protect public health and welfare.
In Virginia, some areas like Fairfax and Hampton Roads see higher levels of particulate matter due to higher traffic volume. Since Virginia’s temporary withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), some reports indicate that power plant emissions jumped by more than 20%. Comprehensive solutions are required in order to improve the quality of and reduce to harm to Virginia’s air, land, and sea.
Today’s lawsuit is the latest action taken by Attorney General Jones and the coalition in their ongoing effort to fight back against EPA’s unlawful rescission of the 2009 Endangerment Finding. In the fall of 2025, 23 attorneys general and seven counties and cities submitted two comment letters urging EPA to abandon the proposal, arguing that it would violate settled law, clear Supreme Court precedent, and scientific consensus, endanger hundreds of millions of Americans—particularly communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harms—and cause unprecedented disruption to the regulatory landscape with catastrophic consequences for residents, industries, natural resources, and public investments.
Co-led by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, AG Jones is joined in filing this challenge, by the attorneys general of: Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin,; the District of Columbia; and the United States Virgin Islands, as well as Josh Shapiro, in his official capacity as Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the Cities of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; and New York, New York; the Counties of Harris, Texas; Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington; and Santa Clara, California; and the Cities and Counties of Denver, Colorado, and San Francisco, California.
