Governor Newsom blasts Trump administration’s proposal gutting climate and clean air protections as ‘negligence’

What you need to know: The Governor submitted a formal comment to the U.S. EPA officially opposing the Trump administration's efforts to gut America's foundational clean air protections.

SACRAMENTO - Governor Gavin Newsom today submitted a formal comment to the U.S. EPA opposing the latest efforts by the Trump administration to deny decades of scientific research and turn back the clock on life-saving policies that protect public health.

In July, the U.S. EPA announced they are proposing to roll back decades-old emissions standards for cars and trucks by reversing the "endangerment finding." This finding is the basis for nearly all federal actions to curb planet-warming emissions of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane.

Read the Governor's full comment below and watch his video. The Governor's comment comes as he heads to New York for Climate Week.

Dear Administrator Zeldin:

I write to you not only as Governor of California - the fourth largest economy in the world - but as the leader of a state whose people must live with the daily consequences of your agency's failures.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposal to reverse the scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare is not just putting politics over evidence, it is bad policy, a dereliction of duty, a moral abdication, and a betrayal of the very mission entrusted to you.

The Clean Air Act could not be clearer: EPA has an affirmative duty to protect public health and welfare from air pollutants, including greenhouse gases. The Supreme Court affirmed this responsibility in 2007, ruling that greenhouse gases are pollutants subject to regulation. Indeed, in your own confirmation hearing, you acknowledged that the Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants. EPA's 2009 Endangerment Finding recognizes that these emissions threaten the health and welfare of current and future generations. The evidence supporting this is well-documented and settled. And yet, you are now proposing to ignore binding law, overwhelming science, and lived reality.

That is not discretion - it is negligence. It is unlawful. It will cause great harm to the American people.

The cost of EPA's surrender will be measured in human lives and economic devastation. In California alone:

• Wildfires fueled by rising temperatures have killed hundreds, destroyed entire communities and tens of thousands of homes, and caused tens of billions of dollars in damages.
• Extreme heat is now the deadliest climate impact, responsible for more annual deaths than wildfires and floods.
• Drought has cost California's agricultural economy billions, threatening food production nationwide and harming family farmers.
• In recent years, climate-driven floods caused an estimated $5 billion in damages, devastating families and businesses alike.

Nationwide, the picture is no less dire: In 2023 alone, the United States endured 28 separate climate-driven weather disasters exceeding $1 billion in damage each - the highest number ever recorded - claiming more than 400 American lives and causing $92 billion in damages.

In the face of all that, you are suggesting that climate change doesn't endanger us all. Seriously?

EPA's decision to advance this proposal is not only inconsistent with science, it is inconsistent with the law. It fails to meet your statutory obligations under the Clean Air Act. It violates the principles laid out by the Supreme Court. It disregards the wealth of scientific evidence and research underlying the 2009 Endangerment Finding. And in doing so, it abdicates EPA's responsibility to the American people.

By siding with polluters over science, EPA is telling wildfire victims to ignore the flames, flood victims to ignore the rising water, and parents of asthmatic children to ignore the dirty air that chokes their respiratory systems and takes their breath away. That is not leadership - it is an insult.

California will not stand by. We will continue to lead, because we have no choice; the lives and livelihoods of our people depend on it. But history will ask: where was the EPA - the agency created to protect Americans - when the nation faced the greatest environmental and public health crisis of our time?

You still have a choice: honor the law, follow the credible and established science, and fulfill your duty to the American people. Or go down in history as the administration that abandoned its mission, betrayed its mandate, and failed its country.

Sincerely,

Gavin Newsom
Governor of California

California's climate leadership

Pollution is down and the economy is up. Greenhouse gas emissions in California are down 20% since 2000 - even as the state's GDP increased 78% in that same time period as California grew to become the world's fourth largest economy.

The state also continues to set clean energy records. California was powered by two-thirds clean energy in 2023, the latest year for which data is available - the largest economy in the world to achieve this level of clean energy. The state has run on 100% clean electricity for some part of the day almost every day this year.

Since the beginning of the Newsom Administration, battery storage is up to over 15,000 megawatts - a 1,900%+ increase, and over 25,000 megawatts of new resources have been added to the electric grid.