Members of Congress and Climate Organizations Call Out Trump Administration’s Climate Chaos Plan on Capitol Hill
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 17, 2025
Contact: Katie Valentine, kvalentine@cacampaign.org
Members of Congress and Climate Organizations Call Out Trump Administration’s Climate Chaos Plan on Capitol Hill
Leaders came together to oppose the attacks on the EPA’s Endangerment Finding and clean vehicle standards
WASHINGTON–The Trump administration’s scheme to roll back critical climate protections and standards for cleaner cars and trucks drew a strong rebuke today from members of Congress and climate, public health, and clean vehicles advocates.
Standing together at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol visitor center, leaders vociferously opposed Trump’s Climate Chaos Plan: The Environmental Projection Agency’s proposed dismantling of the Endangerment Finding – the requirement to protect people from the pollution that causes climate change – and the rollback of cleaner cars and trucks standards.
Immediately following the press conference, organizers of the event and concerned citizens are hand-delivering a subset of more than 225,000 public comments opposing the administration’s Climate Chaos Plan to the EPA’s headquarters. These comments were collected from Americans nationwide, calling on the EPA to protect people – not polluters – from toxic climate pollutants and cease these dangerous rollbacks.
The outrage towards the administration’s actions extends beyond the press conference. Ahead of the event, 140 organizations representing millions of members wrote to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin opposing the agency’s attacks on the Endangerment Finding. In addition, the Union of Concerned Scientists submitted its own letter to the EPA signed by over 1,000 scientists and experts from nearly every state and Washington, D.C, objecting to the administration’s proposal to rescind the Endangerment Finding. Democratic Congressional delegations from nearly two dozen states are sending their own letters warning the Trump administration’s actions will worsen the climate-crisis-fueled extreme weather disasters that are increasingly threatening their constituents.
Wednesday’s event brought together a range of lawmakers and advocates, including Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Alex Padilla (D-CA); Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Sean Casten (D-IL), Gabe Amo (D-RI), and Mike Levin (D-CA). Leaders from national organizations joined, including Margie Alt, Director of the Climate Action Campaign; Abigail Dillen, President of Earthjustice; Mark Magaña, CEO of GreenLatinos; and representatives from Kids Clean Air Force.
“The fossil fuel industry has essentially been the full dark money funding station for Republicans in Congress. They could not succeed, they would not have the money, if it weren’t for the massive fossil fuel climate denial, fraud, and political obstruction apparatus.” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee said, “Republicans have become as dependent on that apparatus as one of those old deep sea divers with the big helmet is on the air hose that goes to the surface. All fossil fuel has to do is pinch that money hose just a little, and the divers all dance to whatever jig they’re told by the other folks at the end of the dark money pipe. That is why we have to be ready to do battle, not only to protect our environment, but to rid our political environment of the extensive lies and corruption that the fossil fuel industry has launched into American democracy.”
“If Lee Zeldin and the Trump administration want to say climate-fueled hurricanes, wildfires and droughts aren’t a danger to our country, then the Administration itself is a danger to our country,” said Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA). “By attempting to eliminate the endangerment finding, Zeldin is threatening public welfare and the planet—putting our communities and our health at immediate risk. The shortsighted proposal to eliminate our clean cars standard will also kill jobs, cause families to shell out more on gasoline, and mean more asthma attacks for our kids. It’s a full-on assault on American families, their budgets, and their future.”
“The Trump Administration has relentlessly attacked California’s clean vehicle standards, repealed historic tax credits for electric vehicles, and even ripped up the widely accepted scientific consensus that greenhouse gases are accelerating climate change — all to please their Big Oil donors,” said Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA). “While Donald Trump and his billionaire allies ignore the science, we know Americans all across the country can’t afford to let this Administration roll back decades of progress on zero-emissions vehicles and the clean energy transition.”
“The EPA cannot simply erase facts, science, and the truth. People are feeling the negative effects of climate change right now, every day. You don’t win the future by ignoring the science that drives it. Our climate is changing. Our weather is becoming more unpredictable. Those are facts,” said SEEC Vice Chair Congressman Mike Levin. “I’m proud to join my colleagues here today in opposition to the dismantling of the Endangerment Finding and the rollback of environmental protections that protect our air, lower costs, and build a cleaner, more secure future. Americans deserve better. Our kids deserve better. And we expect better from our nation’s leaders.”
“I am here for my children and my grandchildren, because we know just how important it is we do this work for the future and how much we’ve already lost with this Administration,” said Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. “I’m lucky enough to represent the state of Maine, where we care deeply about the environment, but it’s also our livelihood. We’re an economy that’s based on our natural resources, particularly fishing, farming, and forestry. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 90% of the rest of the oceans in the world, and that’s already had huge impacts for our fishermen. Climate change impacts our lives every single day.”
“Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush recognized that global pollution demands global solutions, and that if we are going to put consumers first, we need to use markets to make sure that we identify the cheapest ways to lower global pollution. You can thank Republican Administrations for shutting down the sulfur emissions from Midwestern coal plants,” said Congressman Sean Casten. “I regret that that ideology has completely left the Republican Party. The Republican-created Clean Air Act says that EPA has an affirmative obligation to regulate pollutants that affect human health and welfare. The Supreme Court is unambiguously clear that carbon dioxide is a pollutant that adversely affects health and human welfare. I hope before I’m done with this job, it is not so damn partisan to defend that.”
"While much of my native Texas is full of fossil fuels and fossilized thinking, Texas leads the nation in wind power and solar installations,” said Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX). “I am pleased that most of my Texas Democratic colleagues have joined me in calling for the EPA to maintain the endangerment finding–our bedrock finding that climate change endangers human health. The danger of our ever hotter planet is real. The endangerment finding is essential to meet that challenge.”
“With their climate chaos plan, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin aren’t just making climate denial the official policy of the United States – they are gaslighting the American people with their phony claims that climate change is a hoax," said CAC Director Margie Alt. "At this point, nearly every American has suffered through a climate disaster – from destructive wildfires, to massive hurricanes, to devastating flash floods. The Trump-Zeldin climate chaos plan upends science, will expose people to more pollution, and will drive up energy costs for families. It’s a lose-lose-lose proposition for our families."
“Extreme weather is shattering people’s lives all across our country. To pretend otherwise puts us all in danger, said Abigail Dillen, President of Earthjustice. “The Environmental Protection Agency should do everything possible to clean up pollution causing climate change. Instead, it’s denying climate reality and proposing to eliminate its own authority to take action under the Clean Air Act. Now is the time for our elected leaders in Congress to be very loud and crystal clear: EPA’s proposal to abandon climate action is disastrous and illegal.”
"Communities of color and low-wealth neighborhoods already face higher exposure to vehicle tailpipe pollution — driving up rates of asthma, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses, not to mention adverse birth outcomes,” said Mark Magaña, Founding President & CEO of GreenLatinos. “Latino children are already 40% more likely to die from asthma compared to non-Hispanic white children. Rolling back Cleaner Cars and Cleaner Trucks standards will make all these health conditions worse.”
Footage of the conference can be found on Senator Markey’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch.
As part of its fight against the administration’s rollbacks on climate protections, CAC recently staged a powerful demonstration at the EPA’s headquarters showcasing the destructive extreme weather events that have ravaged the nation in the past year. The projections called attention to the links between the administration’s rejection of climate science, worsening climate change, and increasingly dangerous and deadly extreme weather. Images of the projection can be found here.
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About the Climate Action Campaign
Climate Action Campaign (CAC) is a vibrant coalition driving ambitious, durable, equitable federal action to tackle the climate crisis. By cutting carbon pollution and accelerating the transition to clean energy, we will improve public health and create a more resilient economy and a more sustainable future for all.
