The Biden administration is scrapping a Trump-era rule that made it more difficult for the Environmental Protection Agency to justify stricter air pollution rules.
The rule at issue made changes to the EPA’s methods for calculating costs and economic benefits in a way that would make more proposals seem as if they would do more damage than good. In a rule slated to be published Friday, the Biden EPA said the changes were “not needed, useful, or advisable policy changes.”
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Removing the Trump EPA’s rule is a critical step for the Biden administration, which has promised to set tougher climate and air pollution mandates. Environmentalists had warned the Trump administration’s rule would make it much harder for the EPA to set tougher air pollution limits because it restricted the agency’s ability to assess the benefits of reducing emissions.
The Trump EPA’s rule, finalized during the last months of the administration, required the agency to conduct a cost-benefit analysis for every major air pollution regulation and, to the extent possible, make the data available to the public.
However, the rule narrowed the kinds of costs and benefits the EPA can consider, restricting the agency to weighing only the economic benefits resulting directly from reducing emissions of the targeted pollutant.
Importantly, that restriction would preclude the EPA from considering so-called co-benefits when setting pollution limits. Those are secondary benefits accrued from reductions in pollutants not directly regulated.
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Industry and conservative groups had long complained the EPA has relied too heavily on co-benefits to help justify tough air pollution controls. Former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the final rule during an event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The Biden EPA is taking comments for 30 days on its action to scrap the cost-benefit rule, and it will hold a public hearing on June 9.
