EPA under Lee Zeldin drops health benefits from air-pollution rules

Lee Zeldin’s EPA has adopted a novel, legally questionable method that treats the health advantages of reducing air pollutants as immeasurable, removing them from cost-benefit analyses. The change was first signaled in a January rule on gas-turbine emissions, which dismissed valuations for fine particulate matter and ozone based on alleged uncertainties that existing EPA techniques already address. The agency has since applied the same logic to vehicle-emission standards, coal and oil plant regulations, wood-product rules, and recent relaxations of heavy-duty vehicle testing.

While the EPA continues to tally industry compliance costs, it now relies on disputed industry claims and ignores scientific studies that have traditionally quantified health benefits. Critics argue the approach violates established regulatory practice and will likely increase premature deaths, asthma attacks and hospitalizations across the United States.