Endangerment Finding

For the past few years, Michigan summers have been increasingly marred by a haze of wildfire smoke—a stark reminder of climate change that chokes our skies and our lungs.

That is why the Trump EPA’s new proposal to rollback the “Endangerment Finding” is so dangerously short-sighted. For nearly twenty years, this scientific fact — that greenhouse gases harm our health — has been the basis of key clean air protections, upheld by the Supreme Court.

This finding is the tool that empowers the EPA to restrict the pollutants driving climate change from major industries. Weakening it would ignore decades of scientific consensus, putting polluters ahead of the health of our children, seniors, and communities.

The American Lung Association warns this would be a “dangerous setback for health.” For Michigan, repealing this finding means more lung-searing ozone pollution and more intense wildfires filling our air with smoke. It directly leads to more asthma attacks and premature deaths for the most vulnerable among us.

Beyond air quality, these climate impacts fuel more extreme weather across our state, causing unpredictable floods that overwhelm our sewers, longer droughts that threaten farm yields and water levels, and stronger windstorms that cause widespread power outages."

The EPA has a responsibility to protect all Americans from escalating climate threats.

Liz Busch

City Commissioner 

Mount Pleasant