FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2025
Contact: Ashley Sullivan, ashley.sullivan@weact.org, (917) 837-1183 (WE ACT/EJLF)
Isella Ramirez, info@movingforwardnetwork.com, (323) 854-1857 (MFN)
Prerna Sampat, psampat@ceed.org (CEED/Equitable & Just National Climate Platform)
Kayla Ritchie, kayla@unbendablemedia.com (CJA)
Stephanie Herron, sherron@comingcleaninc.org, 802-251-0203 ext.707 (EJHA)
NATIONWIDE – In response to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking to remove the Endangerment Finding and revoke vehicle emissions regulations, a coalition of environmental justice networks submitted written comments – signed by 100 organizations and individuals – alongside a powerful collection of testimonies that capture the real-world impacts of climate and transportation pollution and frontline and fenceline communities’ need for robust protections. The coalition of environmental justice groups warn that EPA’s decision undermines their mission and puts millions of lives at risk, placing environmental justice communities in the greatest danger. They also share a clear set of demands: The EPA must stop its proposal to revoke the Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards, renew its commitment to environmental justice, restore essential funding, and commit to regulations that protect current and future generations.
The coalition, which includes the Moving Forward Network (MFN), Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), Equitable & Just National Climate Platform (EJNCP), Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA), and the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum (EJLF) represents millions of people living in frontline and fenceline communities across the United States. With the EPA willfully ignoring its mission, while broader groups met in NYC for Climate Week, the comments and stories serve as a stark reminder: environmental justice communities are hit first and worst, and our experiences and needs will not be erased from the narrative.
Individuals and groups from California to North Carolina shared their profound concerns and examples of horrific consequences from climate and transportation pollution. Paulina López, Executive Director of the Duwamish River Community Coalition in Seattle, WA shared, “This isn’t just about statistics. It’s about the headaches, the asthma, the unexplained illnesses. It’s about our elders, our children, our families who are disproportionately impacted by pollution every single day. The impacts of climate change are already here—more flooding, hotter summers, and less clean water—and our community is on the frontlines. That’s why I’m speaking out.”
The proposal to revoke the Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards effectively removes EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, power plants, and other major polluters. The coalition shares that this act flies in the face of decades of what science, frontline and fenceline communities, and workers have always known: environmental and climate pollution pose a direct and growing threat to human life – most disproportionately impacting people of color and lower income.
“We live in a world where solutions for ending pollution and climate harm already exist. Yet instead of advancing a fair and healthy future, the EPA is proposing rollbacks that serve polluters and put our communities at greater risk. We cannot ignore the reality that communities of color and low income are dying from dirty air and preventable disasters. Race and zip code should not determine who breathes clean air or lives a full life. The EPA has a clear mission—and until all people are protected from environmental and health harms, that mission remains unfulfilled. We will keep raising our voices to demand the safe, just future we all deserve.” – Anastasia Gordon, Director of Federal Policy, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
“Frontline and fenceline community-based and member-powered organizations aren’t waiting to be rescued — they’re leading the way toward environmental justice. The EPA is moving to revoke the vehicle emissions standards and the Endangerment Finding, the legal foundation for regulating climate pollution. If revoked, it would dismantle Clean Air Act protections and flood our communities with even more pollution — hitting frontline and fenceline neighborhoods first and worst. This isn’t a technical change. It’s a direct attack on public health, climate justice, and our basic right to breathe clean and healthy air. We will not be erased. And we will not be silent.” -Isella Ramirez, Executive Director, Moving Forward Network
The comments share a specific rationale for why the EPA’s proposal denies the lived experience, backed by science, of the effects of pollution on public health, the environment, and the climate. This includes that 1) The proposal denies the lived experience, backed by science, of the effects of pollution on public health, the environment, and the climate. 2) The proposal does not consider the targeted and harmful effects that this “historic deregulation” effort will have on workers. 3) The proposal is based on flawed science. 4) The proposal is unlawful. 5) The proposal does not consider the benefits of climate and environmental protection.
“The Endangerment Finding ensures that the EPA can do its job and protect our health and well-being by curbing pollution. This administration’s move to repeal it is just the latest attack on all of us; showing again that they are willing to sacrifice our public health for more corporate control and profits at the expense of the rest of us. We must stand together and oppose this.” – KD Chavez, Executive Director, Climate Justice Alliance (CJA)
“The EPA’s proposed rollback of the Endangerment Finding isn’t just regulatory capture by corporate polluters — it is environmental racism. The repeal of the Endangerment Finding and the vehicle emissions regulations will empower polluters to dump even more toxic pollution on communities that live near highways, in industrial corridors of the country, primarily low-income communities, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, turning them into ‘sacrifice zones’ for shareholder profits. Our collective power, reflected in the powerful community testimonials shared in this letter, represents an antidote to environmental racism and injustice. Our climate future is worth fighting for — and our resistance today is seeding the future we desperately need.” – Byron Gudiel, Executive Director of Center for Earth, Energy & Democracy (CEED), convener of Equitable & Just National Climate Platform (EJNCP)
“It is morally and legally unacceptable that People of Color and low income communities should be forced to live in conditions where toxic pollution and climate disasters make it inevitable that their family, friends and neighbors will face higher risks of asthma, cancer, neurological and reproductive harm and shorter lifespans than those in more affluent areas. Yet that is exactly what this proposal seeks to lock in. The EPA was established over 50 years ago with a simple but profound mission ‘to protect human health and the environment’. This proposed repeal of the Endangerment Finding and Vehicle Standards–on top of the attacks to commonsense protections from hazardous air pollution and chemical disasters–stand in stark contrast to that mission and to what communities need. Our coalitions are standing together to refuse to let this administration silence the EJ communities most impacted by pollution and the climate crisis.” – Stephanie Herron, National Organizer, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA)
The EPA serves several critical functions, including developing and enforcing regulations, providing grants, and studying environmental impacts. Over the past year, we have witnessed numerous rollbacks of hard-fought, peer-reviewed, research-based, and life-saving regulations, as well as the termination of millions of dollars in critical grants. For these reasons, the coalition demands that the EPA withdraw their flawed, prejudiced proposal to rescind its 2009 Endangerment Finding and vehicle emissions standards.