A number of health and environmental groups sued US President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday for scrapping a key scientific conclusion that greenhouse gases threaten public health.
The lawsuit claims that the Trump administration's decision to repeal what is considered the very foundation of green legislation in the United States is illegal.
The so-called "endangerment finding" from 2009, which the Trump administration tore in half last week, forms the basis for a number of climate laws and initiatives - including regulations on emissions from cars.
Green organizations see it as the Trump administration's most far-reaching rollback of climate policy to date.
- We are suing to stop Trump from jeopardizing our children's future in favor of a huge gift to oil companies, said David Pettit, a lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity, which is involved in the lawsuit, in a statement.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday rejected the accusations from environmental groups and maintained that it had carefully considered and re-evaluated the legal basis for the assessment.
The federal agency said it had concluded that the 2009 scientific assessment did not have the legal authority to set standards for vehicle emissions "to address concerns about global climate change."
Trump has dismissed concerns that the scrapped assessment could cost lives by exacerbating climate change. He has reiterated his stance that man-made global warming is a hoax.
The scientific assessment has been central to federal climate policy for years.
The US Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the assessment. It is likely that the legal battle will ultimately end here.
Former President Barack Obama used the 2009 scientific ruling as the legal basis for a number of climate regulations.
The ruling states that six greenhouse gases - including CO2 and methane - pose a risk to public health by exacerbating global warming.
Several of the regulations that were introduced on the basis of the scientific findings - including limits on how much CO2 coal-fired power plants can emit - are now expected to be overturned after Trump has dismantled the basis for them.
/ritzau/AFP
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