Weekly Briefing: Our message to the EPA

August 13, 2025

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed to rescind its 2009 endangerment finding, which forms the basis of all federal climate pollution regulations, explains CCL Research Manager Dana Nuccitelli in a new blog post. “Without the endangerment finding, the EPA may not be allowed or able to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from sources like power plants or vehicle tailpipes, as they have done for years,” Dana writes.

It’s an alarming move, and one that flies in the face of the text and intent of climate laws passed by Congress. “Our representatives have done their jobs by passing legislation over the past many decades that supports and further codifies the EPA’s mandate to regulate climate pollution. That includes the Clean Air Act, and more recently, the Inflation Reduction Act,” Dana explains. “We at CCL wanted to support our members of Congress by making these points in a formal comment.”

Read Dana’s blog post to learn exactly what we said to the EPA and what happens next.

Take action this week

If you have a little time: Contact Congress about climate funding. The Trump administration’s budget proposal for 2026 is seeking dramatic cuts to climate and clean energy programs across a range of federal agencies. We lobbied Congress about this on Capitol Hill last month, and now we’re writing to lawmakers to reinforce our message: We want them to support robust funding for key programs in NOAA, NASA, and the Department of Energy. So far we’ve sent 6,134 messages in less than a week, and our goal is 10,000. Have you sent yours? Our online action tool makes it easy and quick!

If you have more time: Catch up on CCL’s August meeting. If you couldn’t join us for CCL’s monthly meeting this past weekend, catch up on the recording. We heard reflections on last month’s conference from CCL Interim Executive Director Ricky Bradley, as well as a compelling message from the conference keynote session with bestselling author and Good Conflict co-founder Amanda Ripley and CCL Illinois State Coordinator Alex Marianyi.

(Bonus action: If you’re interested in building your own skills around conflict in the ways Amanda and Alex discussed, sign up for more information here.)

Upcoming trainings

8/20: Live Informational Session - CCL holds a live informational session every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, helping new volunteers understand what CCL does and how we do it. Plan to join us next week, or invite a friend who cares about climate change and wants to get involved.

9/13: September monthly meeting - Go ahead and mark your calendar for CCL's next monthly meeting, taking place on Saturday, Sept. 13 at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Our guest speaker is climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain, who will discuss how climate change is affecting wildfires. The meeting is open to all chapters, individual volunteers, and climate-concerned folks nationwide who may want to attend. RSVP today, and we'll see you there!

To see other topics and past trainings, visit the Training Topics page of CCL Community.