This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. This week, the Trump administration indicated that they'll

seek to roll back a key EPA finding that allows the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions

from things like cars and power plants. Here with the details and other stories from the Week in Science

is Sophie Bushwick, senior news editor at New Scientist in New York.

Welcome back, Sophie.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, what is this rule?

How does it interact with how the EPA regulates things?

Well, finding itself, it's called the endangerment

finding, is basically the basis of the EPA regulating power plants and vehicles. Like you said,

without it, there would be a major deregulatory effort. Our reporter James Deneen spoke with

a lot of climate scientists who described this report in

less than glowing terms. They described it as flimsy. Someone called it nutty. One researcher

whose work was cited in the report has called it a farce. And so there is, there's overwhelming

scientific evidence that supports the endangerment finding, and already

the EPA is going to face a lot of pushback legally, and they're open to public comment as well

if they want to try to move forward with this.

What exactly is the aim here to take away all the basis for regulation?

Yes, the claim is that it's bad for the economy to limit

the emissions that power plants and vehicles are allowed to do, and that by repealing the

endangerment finding and removing those regulations, it would be stimulating to the economy.

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