PHOENIX — Today, Attorney General Kris Mayes testified before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in opposition to the agency’s proposed rescission of its landmark 2009 Endangerment Finding that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that drives climate change and endangers public health and welfare. The Trump Administration’s proposal, issued August 1, 2025, would forfeit EPA’s authority to regulate harmful air pollution that contributes to climate change and would eliminate all existing EPA vehicle emission standards in one fell swoop.
Attorney General Mayes' testimony, as delivered:
Good morning, I am Kris Mayes, Attorney General for the State of Arizona. I am here to oppose EPA’s misguided and unlawful proposal to rescind the its 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles endanger the health and welfare our communities.
The devastating impacts of climate change on Arizonans have only become more acute in the years since EPA made its Endangerment Finding. North of where I am sitting, the Bravo Fire, which destroyed a national treasure, the Grand Canyon Lodge, continues to rage. It is the largest wildfire now burning in the United States. And just two weeks ago, temperatures here in Phoenix hit 118 degrees. It was the hottest August day ever recorded in Phoenix. Over the last twenty years, Arizona’s heat-related deaths have increased tenfold,[1] with almost 1,000 people dying statewide in 2023 due to extreme heat exposure.[2] And I don’t need to tell you the devastation that will befall the entire southwestern United States should the drying trends continue on the Colorado River.
The best available science tells us that Arizona’s hotter, drier conditions are being driven by climate change. Against this backdrop, as one climate scientist put it,“To repeal the Endangerment Finding now would be like a driver who is speeding towards a cliff taking his foot off the brake and instead pressing the accelerator.”[3]
EPA’s proposed repeal of the Endangerment Finding is wrong on the science and is unlawful. EPA has significant authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that endanger public health and welfare, including from motor vehicles. EPA is obligated to consider the costs of climate change by using rigorous, peer-reviewed methods. Instead, EPA is proposing to bury its head in the sand and ignore the mounting costs of climate change for all Americans
EPA must withdraw its misguided and unlawful proposal to repeal the Endangerment Finding, which will exacerbate climate change and harm Arizonans.
[1] Slade Smith et al, Making Action Possible, Why has Arizona’s Heat-Related Death Rate Increased Tenfold in Twenty Years?, (Aug 8, 2024), https://www.mapazdashboard.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/2024-08/Heat-Related%20Deaths%20White%20Paper.pdf; see also Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), Heat-Caused and Heat-Related Deaths in Arizona by Year (2011-2021), https://www.azdhs.gov/documents/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/extreme-weather/pubs/heat-related-mortality-year.pdf.
[2] ADHS, Heat-Caused & Heat-Related Deaths from Exposure to Excessive Natural Heat in Arizona (2012-2023) 2, https://www.azdhs.gov/documents/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/extreme-weather/pubs/heat-related-mortality-year-2012-2023.pdf.
[3]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RHaocfiisHyXEVn8CwXMcsvPeuH1DAe-t6-COS6uQvw/edit?usp=drivesdk