Twenty-three US states and 14 cities and counties sued the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday, challenging the agency's decision to revoke the government's scientific finding of greenhouse gas endangerment, the cornerstone for US climate regulations.

​The coalition, led by Democratic-governed New York and California, filed the legal action in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The states argue that the EPA acted illegally last month when it repealed the 2009 Endangerment Finding on Greenhouse Gases. This scientific finding concludes that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, threaten public health and welfare, a finding that formed the legal bedrock of federal climate regulations in the United States.

The plaintiff coalition argues that the EPA's revocation of the finding violates both the Clean Air Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit also challenges the EPA's decision to cancel federal regulations limiting tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions for all vehicles from model year 2012 to 2027.

The case is expected to reach the Supreme Court, according to the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, Xinhua reported. The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University has warned that a ruling in the EPA's favor could permanently bar future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, according to Xinhua. Transportation is the largest single source of such emissions in the country, according to Xinhua.

​The EPA announced the revocation on February 12, describing it as the "single largest deregulatory action in US history." This move came one month after the US withdrew from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

President Donald Trump called the revoked finding "a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and drove up prices ​for American consumers."

​The agency claimed that ending vehicle emission standards would save $1.3 trillion over 30 years. However, environmental groups projected that the move, along with the federal government's legal challenge to California's zero-emission vehicle and tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions rules, will increase gasoline prices by as much as 9% over the next decade, adding over $3 billion per year ​in fuel costs for US drivers by 2035, Reuters reported.

(With inputs from agencies)