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Members of a California faith organization are speaking out against the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to reverse the rule underpinning climate protections under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA finalized a decision reversing the 2009 Endangerment Finding, a legal provision which said greenhouse gases put human health at risk and therefore must be regulated.

Susan Stephenson, executive director of the nonprofit California Interfaith Power and Light, said the EPA is betraying its own mission.

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"Their mission is to protect human health and the environment," Stephenson stressed. "This claim that global warming is not a threat is unfathomable and it is a morally reprehensible act."

To accompany the rollback of the rule, the EPA is planning massive deregulation of federal emissions standards for cars and trucks. The President has argued antipollution measures stymie industry and add to the cost of a vehicle.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has vowed to sue to stop the new EPA rule, as have a number of environmental groups but if the change stands, dozens of environmental regulations could be struck down.

Stephenson argued Americans must continue to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, regardless.

"We have thousands of religious institutions around the state and around the country that are greening their facilities, reducing their carbon footprints, planting trees," Stephenson outlined. "Working to make their communities healthier and make our climate more sustainable."

California Interfaith Power and Light submitted nearly 5,000 comments by people of faith in opposition to the new EPA rule during the public comment period.