Press Release
STATEMENT FROM DENIS HAYES, ORGANIZER OF THE FIRST EARTH DAY & KATHLEEN ROGERS, PRESIDENT EARTHDAY.ORG
July 31, 2025
EARTHDAY.ORG joins leaders from across the United States to
Washington, DC (July 31, 2025) – EARTHDAY.ORG (EDO) condemns EPA Administrator Zeldin’s announcement that he plans to dismantle the EPA’s chief legal tool for fighting pollution, protecting human health and mitigating climate change — known as the ‘Endangerment Finding.’
The EPA’s critical 2009 legal determination established that greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, pose a threat to public health and granted the Agency authority to regulate these pollutants under the Clean Air Act, including chemicals that kill children and adults alike. Without this finding, industry would effectively escape all regulation under the Clean Air Act.
By undermining the Endangerment Finding, Administrator Zeldin signals that enriching corporations at the expense of American lives is the new mission of the EPA. Zeldin believes that the people of the United States are not entitled to clean air or clean water — rights that are fundamental, not privileges.
If Congress does not quickly amend the Clean Air Act to explicitly address climate change, the world will view our whole nation as complicit in President Donald J. Trump’s environmental crimes against humanity.
The EPA itself has reported that the Clean Air Act has prevented over 230,000 premature deaths annually in the U.S; dismantling the Endangerment Finding threatens to reverse this progress.
Increased greenhouse gas emissions will accelerate climate change and increase the frequency and ferocity of extreme weather events. While increased pollution from petroleum hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, excessive carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, dust, smoke, and soot from industrial activities, will degrade the air we all breathe. No one can escape it.
Revoking the Endangerment Finding is effectively inviting U.S industry to endanger public health for their profit—and it is our children who suffer the most. The American Lung Association recently announced that a large-scale transition to zero-emission vehicles and clean electricity, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, could prevent a staggering 2.79 million pediatric asthma attacks in the U.S alone by 2050. While industry gloats and applauds we remind them that petrochemicals and pollutants harm their children too.
We have the power to reject this assault on U.S health and still support a booming economy, partly thanks to the growth of renewable energy. The U.S doesn’t have to choose between clean air and economic growth. In 2024, nearly 90% of new U.S. power came from renewables, and clean energy jobs grew twice as fast as the rest of the economy.
We urgently call on everyone in the U.S, including policymakers, to support our children’s right to a healthy future and observe the 2007 ruling of the Supreme Court, affirming the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases. The court demanded more than a simple review of vehicle emissions — it required the EPA to base its decisions on whether emissions posed a health or welfare risk, and if so, empowered the EPA to take regulatory action to protect the public. Subsequent EPA regulations and court decisions would require greenhouse gas emissions from industry as well.
We should remember that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established by Republican President Richard Nixon in December 1970, just months after the very first Earth Day on April 22nd – which galvanized 20 million Americans to march on the streets. Demanding environmental action to keep their families safe and healthy – with clean water and clean air.
We remind elected officials that the bi-partisan spirit of the first Earth Day of 1970 is still here and no ‘air breathing’ citizen will support this act of callousness and greed. We urge everyone to act. Tell your elected officials that we expect them to fight back. Our children deserve better.
Demand protection of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and oppose Administrator Zeldin’s rollback of the Endangerment Finding.
For Media Inquiries/Quotes/Comment/Interviews:
Sarah Davies, [email protected], +1 240 463 1341 (Washington DC)Terran Fielder , [email protected], + 1 661 444 4436 (Washington DC)