The Clean Air Act Is Under Attack

In 1943 , Los Angeles residents awoke to a city so thoroughly pervaded by eye-stinging smog that they thought the city had been the victim of a World War II chemical attack.

Polluters argued that the legislation would be economically disastrous and was predicated on impossible-to-meet standards.

If successful, the clean air that we now take for granted may once again erode into a deadly, pollutant-filled smog.

The D.C. Circuit ruled in one of these cases, Ohio v. EPA , in spring of 2024 .

That decision affirmed California ’s right to regulate under this authority.

When later appealed by states and industry to the Supreme Court , SCOTUS refused to overturn the circuit court's ruling mostly.

Donald Trump ’s EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin , has reportedly begun efforts to strike the Endangerment Finding by submitting recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget .

Such action is predicated on the administration's disavowal of years of settled science, and a thorough rejection of the interests of the public in favor of polluter profits.

It would fundamentally rewrite more than a decade of regulation.