EPA Will Stop Calculating How PM 2.5 & Ozone Cuts Save Lives/Health; Now, Only Costs To Industry To Be Calculated

[hatrack]

The Environmental Protection Agency says it will stop calculating how much money is saved in healthcare costs avoided and deaths prevented from air pollution rules that curb two deadly pollutants. The change means the EPA will focus rules for fine particulate matter and ozone only on the cost to industry, part of a broader realignment under Donald Trump toward a business-friendly approach that has included the rollback of multiple policies meant to safeguard human health and the environment and slow climate change.

The agency said in a statement late on Monday that it “absolutely remains committed to our core mission of protecting human health and the environment” but “will not be monetizing the impacts at this time”. The EPA will continue to estimate costs to businesses to comply with the rules and will continue “ongoing work to refine its economic methodologies” of pollution rules, spokesperson Brigit Hirsch said.

Environmental and public health advocates called the agency’s action a dangerous abdication of one of its core missions. “The EPA’s mandate is to protect public health, not to ignore the science in order to eliminate clean air safeguards that save lives,” said John Walke, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

EDIT

Emissions of nitrogen oxide, also known as NOx, form smog and soot that is harmful to human health and linked to serious heart and lung diseases. The EPA’s final NOx rule, issued on Monday, is substantially less restrictive than a proposal under the Biden administration. For some gas plants, the rule weakens protections in place for two decades. The new rule does not estimate the economic value of health benefits from reducing NOx and other types of air pollution under the Clean Air Act. Critics said the change meant the EPA will ignore the economic value of lives saved, hospital visits avoided and lost work and school days prevented.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/epa-air-pollution-cost-savings-deaths

[quaint]

1. I do not understand why they have no concern for their own grandkids.