Focus The New York Times – December 9
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this Wednesday completed a rule that could weaken federal authority to issue clean air and climate change regulations by changing the way the costs of pollution and benefits of pollution control are measured. Under the new rule, EPA economists would be required to calculate and disclose in the rulemaking process the value of benefits to public health that directly stem from a new environmental regulation separately from the value of ancillary benefits, or “co-benefits,” such as the reduction of additional pollutants not directly governed by the regulation. Industry supporters of the new rule applauded it for promoting transparency. Critics argue that breaking out co-benefits in the cost-benefit calculation would give opponents of future rules an argument, unwarranted by the Clean Air Act, to challenge future emissions limitations. The new cost-benefit rule is not expected to survive the inco