Denver Condemns EPA Climate Rollbacks

Denver Condemns EPA Climate Rollbacks

Published on February 12, 2026

Mayor Mike Johnston today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) final rule rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which determined that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that drives climate change and endangers public health and welfare.

"Denver will continue to lead on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting our community from climate risks, despite the federal government's actions," said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. "Yet again, the Trump Administration is slashing protections and putting the health and safety of Americans at risk. We will keep working with states and cities across the country to defend settled law and push forward on climate action - because our community deserves clean air, a healthy environment and a safe future."

The 2009 Endangerment Finding was the direct result of the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which confirmed EPA's authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that threaten public health and welfare. In response to that opinion and after years of scientific review, EPA confirmed in 2009 that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that harms public health and welfare in numerous ways. The agency then set standards to limit motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

EPA's rescission of the Endangerment Finding rests on the flawed assertion-soundly rejected by the Supreme Court-that it lacks legal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and ignores longstanding scientific evidence that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The rule eliminates all existing and future federal greenhouse gas standards for vehicles, violating the agency's legal obligations and fundamental responsibility to protect public health and welfare from environmental harm.

"Rescinding the Endangerment Finding is more than a policy reversal-it's a rejection of decades of science and settled law," said Elizabeth Babcock, Executive Director of Denver's Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency. "Federal agencies have a duty to safeguard public health and the environment, not dismantle protections that communities rely on. Ignoring climate realities doesn't erase them; it only deepens the harm."

In the fall of 2025, the City and County of Denver joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general and seven counties and cities in submitting two comment letters urging the 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.

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