EPA to reconsider cost benefit analysis of air pollution on human life

The Trump administration will soon rewrite the factors it uses to determine the health risks of air pollution, a move critics warn will make it harder to place limits on emissions. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler defended the change in a memorandum to staff dated May 13 and made public Tuesday as a way to rectify inconsistencies in the current cost-benefit analyses used by the agency across all sectors. “Benefits and costs have historically been treated differently depending on the media office and the underlying authority. This has resulted in various concepts of benefits, costs and other factors that may be considered,” Wheeler wrote. “This memorandum will initiate an effort to rectify these inconsistencies through statute-specific actions.” The Trump administration has long argued that Obama administration over-estimated the health risks for various environmental regulations, often to the detriment of industry...MORE