Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford on Thursday signed the state on to a legal challenge of the Trump administration’s repeal of a 2009 rule that allowed the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued the so-called endangerment finding following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which affirmed that the federal Clean Air Act allows the federal agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that pollute the nation’s air.
The endangerment finding by the Obama administration is the legal basis of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.
An overwhelming majority of climate scientists link greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning industries such as coal and oil to the rapid warming of the planet. Still, the Trump administration rolled back that finding this year to a chorus of objections from environmentalists throughout the country.
“The Endangerment Finding is grounded in clear statutory authority, Supreme Court precedent, and decades of scientific consensus, and the EPA’s attempt to rescind it is both unlawful and reckless,” Ford said in a statement. “We are taking action to ensure that these critical protections remain in place and that public health is not sacrificed in the face of political expediency.”
Ford, a Democratic candidate for governor, has largely stayed away from environment-related lawsuits in his time as attorney general, except for one that challenged the elimination of a $150 million federal grant for low-income residents to benefit from solar in Nevada.
Last year, Gov. Joe Lombardo, the Republican incumbent, drew criticism for his update to the state’s climate change plan. Democrats and environmentalists said the update was a major downgrade from what was in place previously.
Nevada on the frontlines
In February, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin lauded the rescission of the endangerment finding as the “single largest degulatory action in U.S. history” and claimed the move would save taxpayers $1.3 trillion by removing requirements to tally vehicle emissions.
“Referred to by some as the ‘Holy Grail’ of the ‘climate change religion,’ the Endangerment Finding is now eliminated,” Zeldin said in a statement. “The Trump EPA is strictly following the letter of the law, returning commonsense to policy, delivering consumer choice to Americans and advancing the American Dream.”
Ford — along with a coalition of 24 states; Washington, D.C.; the U.S. Virgin Islands; and 12 cities and counties — says in the petition filed Thursday that the EPA’s rescission of the rule is based on a poor interpretation of law, judicial precedent and decades of climate science.
He was part of a group of 23 attorneys general and seven counties and cities that protested the repeal of the endangerment finding in fall 2025, his office said.
In a news release, Ford pointed to Wednesday’s record high temperature for the month of March in Las Vegas, along with drought conditions, declining snowpack and increased wildfire risk, as just some of the evidence for what he called the climate crisis.
Nevada is home to the two fastest-warming cities in the nation — Reno and Las Vegas — according to independent weather scientists at Climate Central who analyze average temperatures since 1970 every year.
Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
