EDF Files Second Lawsuit for Records about Trump Administration Actions to Undermine Endangerment Finding

(Washington, D.C. – March 24, 2025) Environmental Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit to compel the Department of the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to release information related to the Trump administration’s actions to strike down the Endangerment Finding — a profoundly flawed effort to cancel EPA’s Clean Air Act limits on the pollution that causes more intense heatwaves, fires and storms. 

The lawsuit was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the agencies failed to release information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). EDF has also sought similar records and filed a FOIA lawsuit against EPA.

“Actions by the Trump administration to strike down the bedrock safeguards that protect the American people from climate-destabilizing pollution are being undertaken in secrecy,” said EDF senior attorney Erin Murphy. “The public has a fundamental right to know why the Trump Administration is attacking these protections at a time when climate pollution is fueling extreme fires, flooding, storms and other dangers.”  

Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin recently announced that the agency will formally reconsider the Endangerment Finding “with Agency Partners.” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum stated the attack on the determination that climate pollution endangers public health and welfare is associated with “achiev[ing] President Trump’s vision for energy dominance.”

The Endangerment Finding is the longstanding determination that climate pollution endangers human health and safety. It is built on a mountain of scientific evidence, has been affirmed multiple times by the U.S. Supreme Court, and underpins EPA’s vital protections for people across the country at risk from extreme weather and other severe harms caused by climate change.  

In a Day One Executive Order, President Trump directed EPA, in collaboration with other agencies, to make recommendations on the “legality and continued applicability” of its Endangerment Finding. 

To ensure that the public knows what agencies are doing, EDF filed FOIA requests seeking related information from the Department of the Interior, NOAA, and CEQ. But the agencies have not released any records related to EPA Administrator Zeldin’s recommendation to reverse the Endangerment Finding. Today’s lawsuit seeks to compel disclosure of the requested records. 

You can find more information in EDF’s blog post (Danger ahead: the Trump administration’s attack on EPA’s finding that climate pollution harms public health) and our letter to EPA with more information about the Endangerment Finding.