Trump EPA Makes Major Moves to Repeal Climate Regulation

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2008, the Obama administration compiled a massive report with the goal of answering one big question: Is climate change a danger to human health in America? Comprised of some of the most comprehensive scientific findings of all time, the Endangerment Finding concluded that it was, which allowed the government to regulate climate change—including putting restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. Now, the Trump administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have ruled to rescind the Endangerment Finding, in turn stripping climate regulations. It’s just the latest in Trump’s attack on climate science and regulations including the firing of hundreds of scientists, and the erasure of critical climate reports and data. We talk with climate reporters and scientists about what’s at stake. And what’s coming next. Guests: Molly Taft, journalist and climate reporter, WIRED Kristen Sissner, executive director, Berkeley Earth Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for KQED podcasts comes from Star One Credit Union. Give your savings account the love it deserves.
0:07.9	When you keep your money with Star 1, you keep more of your money. Star 1 credit union in your best interest.
0:14.6	Here's the truth about AI. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into. Service Now puts AI to work for people
0:22.4	across your business, removing friction and frustration for your employees, supercharging
0:28.0	productivity for your developers, providing intelligent tools for your service agents to make
0:32.8	customers happier. All built into a single platform you can use right now. That's why the world works with
0:39.6	ServiceNow. Visit ServiceNow.com slash UK slash AI for people. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Leslie McClurg in today for Alexis Madrigal.
1:04.5	Coming up on forum, under President Obama, the federal government made it official.
1:09.1	Greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and need to be regulated.
1:13.7	That policy known as the endangerment finding has shaped climate action ever since.
1:18.8	But now the Trump administration wants to tear it down.
1:21.3	We'll look at what that could mean for the planet and our health.
1:24.2	It's just the latest move and a broader push to dismantle environmental protections.
1:27.8	That's next after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Leslie McClurg. I'm in today for Alexis Madrigal.
1:54.2	The Trump administration is dismantling very key climate protections. It's scrapping pollution limits.
2:02.6	It's stalling renewable energy projects, deleting years of federal climate data. Its latest target is the endangerment finding.
2:09.8	This is the legal foundation for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Today we'll look at what's at
2:15.3	stake for the planet and public health. We're joined first by
2:19.1	Molly Taft. She's a journalist and climate reporter for Wired. Shea Woolf is climate science
2:25.2	director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Molly, let's talk a little bit about this
2:29.9	endangerment finding. I briefly defined it there, but what is it and why is it important?
2:36.1	Yeah, so the endangerment finding is a really, really crucial cornerstone of how the U.S.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.