The Trump administration will not quantify in dollar terms the expected benefits from clamping down on harmful air pollutants Americans breathe, in a major departure from precedent.
In a final rule released Monday, EPA halted analysis of expected gains from reducing exposure to ozone and the fine particulate matter more technically known as PM2.5. Both are associated with a variety of damaging health effects, including premature death in some circumstances.
The move ditches the framework in the agency’s 2024 proposal to tighten emissions standards for new power plant turbines, which was accompanied by an analysis that estimated long-term health benefits worth up to $670 million from reductions of the two pollutants. No such forecast was prepared for the final rule released Monday.
While EPA is obligated to ensure that the public “is not misled regarding the level of scientific understanding,” the agency wrote in an accompanying analysis, its traditional approach “provided the public with a false sense of precision and more confidence regarding the monetized impacts of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone than the underlying science could fully support, especially as overall emissions have significantly decreased, and impacts have become more uncertain.”
