Patty Satalia

State College

Under pressure from the president, the Environmental Protection Agency has repealed its 2009 finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases “endanger public health and welfare.” That finding wasn’t symbolic. It was the legal backbone for regulating climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. Without it, the EPA now claims it has no authority to regulate greenhouse gases at all.

But that’s not how this works.

In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The Court said that if scientific review showed they harm public health and welfare, the EPA must regulate them. After extensive study, the agency concluded in 2009 that they do.

That science has not disappeared.

The Administrative Procedure Act requires agencies to confront and discredit the evidence behind any finding they repeal. The EPA has not meaningfully addressed the scientific record. Instead, it offers a legal workaround — despite the Supreme Court already making clear that the authority, and the obligation, exist.

This is not just a political or philosophical debate. Climate pollution drives asthma, heat-related illness, crop loss, rising insurance costs, infrastructure damage and billions in disaster recovery. It affects our health, our wallets and our children’s future.

You can change leadership. You can revise policy. But you cannot erase scientific reality — and pretending otherwise will cost us dearly.