Why Rescinding the EPA’s Endangerment Finding Is a Moral Mistake

There is a moral moment before us as a nation: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to rescind the 2009 “Endangerment Finding” — the scientific and legal foundation that recognized human‐caused greenhouse gas emissions as a danger to public health and welfare. If allowed to proceed, this rollback is more than just policy; it is a betrayal of our duty to protect creation, defend the poor, and act justly for future generations.

Below, we lay out what this rollback means — for science, for our faith, and for Georgia — and why, grounded in Catholic Social Teaching and the teachings of popes past and present, we must urge our leaders to oppose it.

What Is the Endangerment Finding, and What’s at Stake

The Endangerment Finding (2009) legally established that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten human health and welfare, giving the EPA authority to regulate those emissions. Rescinding it would dismantle the legal structure that underpins many existing climate protections: for cars, power plants, industrial sources.

The National Academy of Sciences has said the evidence supporting the Finding “is beyond scientific dispute,” and that the risks laid out in 2009 have only increased. 

Without this legal backbone, other safeguards for clean air, public health, and climate resilience become vulnerable to rollback.

Why This Matters to Georgia

The consequences of dismantling the Endangerment Finding are not abstract debates reserved for Washington; they strike at the heart of Georgia’s communities.

Along our coast, families already live with the anxiety of sea‐level rise, more frequent flooding, and stronger storms — realities that threaten homes, livelihoods, and even cultural heritage. In the cities, especially in Atlanta, oppressive heat waves are becoming more frequent and more dangerous, straining hospitals and putting outdoor workers, seniors, and low‐income households without reliable cooling at severe risk. As emissions rise unchecked, air quality deteriorates, worsening asthma and cardiovascular disease, particularly among children and the elderly. And here in Georgia, as elsewhere, these burdens fall hardest on the most vulnerable: low-income neighborhoods, rural towns with limited healthcare access, and communities that already live at the margins. To weaken protections against pollution and climate change is to deepen inequity and to place an even heavier weight on those who have the least means to bear it.

Rooted in Our Faith and CST

For people of faith, this debate is not merely about regulations; it is about fidelity to God’s call to care for creation and to safeguard human dignity. Catholic Social Teaching reminds us that stewardship of the earth is not optional — creation is a gift entrusted to us, to be cultivated and preserved, not exploited for short‐term gain. It also insists that our moral compass must point first toward those most at risk: the poor, the elderly, children, and marginalized communities who suffer the most from polluted air, degraded land, and an unstable climate. Their struggles make climate change not only an environmental crisis but a profound social injustice.

Pope Leo has been clear about the need for conversion whereby our leaders across the globe make caring for creation and reducign the imapcts of climate change a moral priority. This echos the words of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who was clear in Laudato Si’ and throughout his papacy: climate change is one of the defining moral challenges of our age, demanding urgent, collective action.

To ignore the science, to set aside our responsibility, is to fail not only in civic duty but in Christian discipleship. Faith demands that we stand with the vulnerable, defend the common good, and act boldly to protect creation itself.

Call to Action

The EPA is moving to rescind the Endangerment Finding — the foundation for regulating climate-warming pollution. This rollback threatens public health, our communities, and creation itself.

Catholic groups, led by the Franciscan Action Network, are urging the EPA to stop this harmful proposal. We invite you to join us in faith and solidarity by adding your name. Last day for action is September 22nd, 2025.

Together, we can show that protecting creation and defending the vulnerable is a moral obligation we cannot ignore.