Hey, it's Flora Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration dealt a major blow to the government's power to fight climate change by rescinding a key piece of research.

This is a big deal.

This is EPA head Lee Zeldin talking about it.

Referred to by some as the holy grail of federal regulatory overreach. The 2009 Obama EPA

endangerment finding is now eliminated. The endangerment finding. It's the legal basis

for the federal government's regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. And it basically says greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. And because they're harmful, they must be regulated. So what does it mean that this finding has been thrown out?

Joining me now is an original author on the endangerment finding, Dr. Andy Miller.

He was at the EPA for more than 30 years working on air pollution and climate change.

Andy, welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you, Flora, and thank you for having me on.

I think the endangerment finding might be new to people, this term.

How big of a deal is this in the climate world?

Well, it's huge.

It officially and legally defines greenhouse gases as air pollutants.

And with that definition and that finding, then that means that EPA is obligated to regulate that air pollutants or those air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

It is the basis for the regulatory programs. So it's a big deal from an EPA perspective.

You were an original author on the finding. This must be personal for you. What was your response

to the news that it had been rescinded? It was no surprise. We could see this coming from November of 2024. They've long

wanted to get rid of the endangerment finding. They'd really like to get rid of the

Massachusetts versus EPA Supreme Court decision. So this is not something that came as a

surprise. Certainly a disappointment, but not a shock. What was that Massachusetts decision?

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