What Is the Endangerment Finding?
Liz Hurtado of EcoMadres explains why the EPA's recent decision matters and what parents need to know to fight back.
Hi friends! How are you holding up? It’s been a long winter, but my daffodils have just started to peep open and the cherry trees that line our neighborhood streets are absolutely fizzy with blooms. I hope you are also looking up to find glimpses of beauty in the midst of hard and heavy headlines.
Earlier this month, I joined Miranda Rake and Sarah Wheeler on the The Mother Of It All podcast to chat about my new book. We talked about our experiences with maternal ecodistress and how the term “third green shift” is helpful for naming the environmental care work that many mothers perform. We also discussed why it’s so important for our kids to see us showing up for the planet and their future.
On that note, news broke, last week, that 24 states and more than a dozen cities, counties and state agencies, are suing the Trump administration over its decision to dismantle the government’s power to fight climate change.
At the heart of this lawsuit is the repeal of the “endangerment finding” — the 2009 scientific conclusion that determined greenhouse gases endanger human health, which provided the basis for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate emissions. The EPA now claims that it lacks the legal authority to limit greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act.
After the endangerment finding was rescinded, I reached out to Liz Hurtado of EcoMadres — a Moms Clean Air Force program that works to protect children and families from pollution, especially in Latino communities which face a disproportionate burden of climate impacts. Liz is the senior field manager for EcoMadres and a mom of four.
Here, Liz explains what’s at stake and how parents can join the fight…
Kaitlyn: What do you want parents to know about the Trump administration’s repeal of the endangerment finding?
Liz: I want parents to understand what the endangerment finding actually is, because once you do, you realize just how much has been taken from us.
The endangerment finding is the legal foundation of the EPA’s ability to set health-protective limits on climate-warming greenhouse gas pollution. The finding has supported commonsense solutions that reduce pollution, give us cleaner air, and protect both our health and our economy.
On February 12, President Trump and Lee Zeldin, administrator of the EPA, made the morally indefensible decision to revoke the endangerment finding.
This decision is not supported by science, which shows that the pace of global warming is accelerating faster than expected. It’s not supported by public health data, by economics, or by morality, and it certainly isn’t supported by the evidence we are all feeling at home.
I know it can be hard to track every policy rollback right now, but this one matters enormously because it underpins so much else.
What was your initial reaction to the decision? How are you and your EcoMadres colleagues thinking and talking about it now?
My first reaction was grief, followed by anger.
We are experiencing the effects of a changing climate all around us: from intense snowstorms and more frequent flooding, to heat waves making our cities dangerously hot. These higher temperatures also worsen air quality — leading to more asthma and heart disease — and driving up health care costs for families already stretched thin.
Latino families are already paying the price of climate pollution with our health, our jobs, and our homes. As mothers, we see it when extreme heat keeps our children indoors, when wildfire smoke makes it hard for them to breathe, and when floods and storms destroy the neighborhoods we have worked so hard to build.
By removing limits on pollution, Zeldin’s decision will lead to more hospital visits, more pollution-related illness, more economic harm.
These heartbreaking rollbacks will cost lives and endanger our children’s health for decades to come. Parents — who are already doing everything they can —deserve to know that the very systems meant to protect their children are now being dismantled.
How will the decision shape your organization’s priorities in the months and years to come?
We have always known that many communities face disproportionate harm, and this decision makes that even more stark. Black and Latino families are among those who suffer most from the impacts of climate change, due to longstanding inequities that have shaped where we live, where we work, and where our children play.
Centering those most harmed has always been our core priority, and that will not change. What will intensify is our push for accountability.
Zeldin talks about making America healthy, but his actions tell a very different story. His radical agenda — letting polluters off the hook while ignoring public health — must be stopped.
We will be pushing Congress to hold Zeldin accountable. Zeldin’s legacy will be the suffering of our children and grandchildren, and we will not let that go unchallenged.
Does this federal decision mean that taking action at the state and local level is more important than ever?
For parents who are ready to act, local action is often where that energy is most powerful and most visible.
No administration has ever so completely abandoned its responsibility to protect our public health. When the federal government steps back, our families don’t get a break from pollution. The heat doesn’t let up, the smoke doesn’t clear, and the floods don’t stop. And the economic consequences keep mounting: lost crops for farmers, rising insurance premiums, rising energy bills for heating and cooling.
States, cities, and local leaders become even more critical. And so do we.
At Moms Clean Air Force, we fight for justice in every breath, at every level where we can. And, right now, that means showing up everywhere the federal government has walked away.
Mothers are a powerful force and, together, we can make real change.
What can parents do if they’re concerned about what this decision means for their children?
First, I want parents to know: you are not alone, and the worry you feel is completely valid.
The science supports what so many of us are already experiencing in our everyday lives. Climate pollution is causing real harm in communities across this country and it is the EPA’s legal responsibility to protect us from it.
So, we urge you to contact your lawmakers and tell them why this matters to your family. Tell them to hold Zeldin accountable with oversight hearings and to stand up for our children’s health.
You can also join Moms Clean Air Force to stay connected to opportunities for taking action. We are 1.6 million strong. Collective pressure is how we have won protections before, and it is how we will fight to win them back.
Thank you, Liz! I’m deeply grateful for your advocacy work with EcoMadres and all that Moms Clean Air Force is doing to protect the health of our children and communities.
I’ll never forget what Liz told me when I interviewed her about parent-led climate organizations for my book. She said, “Who can deny that we need to protect children? That’s not a partisan issue. We like to say it’s a ‘mom partisan’ issue.”
In fact, recent polling consistently shows that climate-friendly policies, including those that reduce carbon pollution and promote clean energy, enjoy strong bipartisan support. In addition, eighty percent of U.S. voters want clean water and clean air protections.
Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina has referred to clean air policy as an “invisible shield” that works quietly in the background to protect our health. According to one report on the public health consequences of repealing the endangerment finding, by 2055, it could lead to:
15,400 to 58,000 premature deaths
9 million to 37 million asthma attacks
26,000 to 92,000 ED and hospital visits
5 million to 15 million lost school and work days
“More exposure to pollution will mean more health risks,” concludes Jetelina.
The legal battle over the endangerment finding is expected to reach the Supreme Court. If the repeal of the endangerment finding is upheld, the effect could be felt for generations. Heatmap warns: “If the Supreme Court eventually rules in favor of the Trump administration, then it would hamstring the ability of any future president — Republican or Democrat — to use the EPA to slow climate change or limit greenhouse gas pollution.”
Now is the time to work together to fight for the environmental policies that protect our children’s health. As Liz told me, “We have to harness the most renewable source of energy, which is love.”
A poem for you:
A few more things I’ve read and appreciated:
“The wonder and horror for climate is that the great majority of people on Earth support climate action. The obstacles are not technological. They’re political. The fossil-fuel industry and the rich and powerful and governmental figures who either are or serve the fossil-fuel industry are what’s holding us back. So the wonder and horror exist side by side. You can be thrilled by all the things that are happening and horrified by all the things that should be happening but aren’t. Everything we can save is worth saving. Everything we can do is worth doing. We’ve already lost a lot, but we don’t have to lose everything. We don’t have to surrender.” — Rebecca Solnit in The Interview (NYT gift link)
“The best near-term climate opportunity with growing bipartisan support is to pass legislation modernizing the U.S. power sector. While some experts might be skeptical — power sector reform has languished for years — the combination of rising electricity costs, escalating demand, and aging infrastructure is creating new pressure for action.” — Jody Freeman in Beyond ‘Endangerment’: Finding a Way Forward for U.S. on Climate
“Enough of us see that we have a world to remake. We want to meet what is hard and hurting. We want to rise to what is beautiful and life-giving. We want to do that where we live, and we want to do it walking alongside others.” — Krista Tippett for the Wisdom & Action Forum 2026
Thank you so much for reading! I’ll be back in your inbox later this week with a monthly recap.
xK
Thank you for subscribing to Oh, Good. You can pre-order my essay collection Little Apocalypses: Essays on Motherhood, Climate Change, and Hope at the End of the World (Harper Perennial, April 2026) and follow me on Instagram, if you’d like.
What wonderful work!