GASP Voices Vehement Opposition to Proposal to Gut EPA’s Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions

GASP on Wednesday voiced our vehement opposition to the Trump regime’s proposal to dismantle what’s known as the 2009 Endangerment Finding - one that resulted in greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines.

The Endangerment Finding is the legal prerequisite EPA used to regulate emissions from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines. Absent the Endangerment Finding, EPA would lack statutory authority under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to prescribe standards for greenhouse gas emissions. 

It’s a big deal. Here’s what Patrick told EPA:

Good afternoon. My name is Patrick Campbell, and I serve as the executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution, or GASP. For more than 55 years, we’ve fought for cleaner air and healthier communities in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Today, I want to speak plainly: we are outraged and deeply concerned about the dismantling of environmental protections that the EPA was created to uphold.

The latest example is this administration’s attempt to undermine the 2009 Endangerment Finding—the legal foundation that allows the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks, and engines under the Clean Air Act. If this proposal goes through, the EPA would lose its authority to regulate climate-altering pollution from vehicles. 

That means greenhouse gas standards for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles could disappear, wiping away years of progress.

And why? The justification focuses almost entirely on industry profits and so-called consumer choice. What’s missing? Any serious acknowledgment of the devastating consequences for our environment and our health.

Let’s be clear: this is not just about legal technicalities or economic models. This is about the air our children breathe. It’s about rising asthma rates, respiratory illness, and heat-related deaths. It’s about the escalating climate crisis we already see around us—in the floods, wildfires, and extreme weather events becoming the new normal.

To claim, as this administration does, that U.S. vehicle emissions don’t significantly contribute to climate change is to ignore both settled science and decades of legal precedent. It is nothing less than an abdication of responsibility.

The EPA’s mission is simple and profound: to protect human health and the environment. Full stop. This proposal does the opposite. It represents a betrayal of public trust and a dangerous gamble with our future.

We call on the EPA to remember its purpose, to honor the science, and to put people—not polluters—first. Our communities, our children, and generations to come depend on it.

Thank you.