Pointing to rising environmental risks for Massachusetts and other states, a cadre of Bay State lawmakers is calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “to halt its attack” on a bedrock principle of fighting climate change.

In a Wednesday letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin shared exclusively with MassLive, the lawmakers, led by U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., called on the agency to preserve the 16-year-old “ endangerment finding ,” which provides the “legal and regulatory foundation for climate protection.”

The rule is based on a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling called Massachusetts v. EPA . The 5-4 decision gave the agency broad latitude to regulate greenhouse gases under the federal Clean Air Act .

The finding, which has been repeatedly upheld in the courts, requires t

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