Terry Gross

Her article on the current issue of The New Yorker is titled Can the EPA Survive Lee Zeldin?

She's a staff writer at The New Yorker.

We'll be right back after a short break.

I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air.

So getting back to the endangerment findings.

So right now, that has been rescinded by the head of the EPA, Lee Zeldin.

There are many lawsuits, right, about that rescission?

Okay.

And that's working or will work its way through the courts and most likely end up in the Supreme Court, do you think?

So in the meantime, the fact that it's been rescinded is how they're proceeding.

They're not waiting to see what the courts have to say.

Right now, they're acting as if it's legally rescinded.

One of the things we've been seeing during this second Trump administration is that the courts are so much slower than the ability of people who are heading agencies and cabinet secretaries.

The courts are slower than the leaders' abilities to dismantle whole agencies and departments, to terminate thousands of people.

experts.

Tariffs are such a good example.

The Supreme Court says that Trump's tariffs are illegal long after he collected the money from the tariffs, and now he's supposed to give it back.

That's going to be really difficult, probably both financially and bureaucratically.

Have you ever seen anything like this where there's such a discrepancy between so many actions and the delay of the courts to actually give a definitive answer on those actions?

A subject of debate now has to do with the wording of the Clean Air Act.