For nearly thirty years, EPA has quantified and monetized the harmful effects of particulate matter and ozone, two lethal pollutants that threaten human health. The Trump Administration has abandoned these estimates, rejecting decades of research and instead claiming without support that the estimates are too uncertain. According to EPA, the benefits of reducing particulate matter and ozone pollution are now worth zero dollars.
In February, EPA finalized a rule rescinding key updates to protections for hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired electric utility steam generating units. Among them, EPA rolled back updated standards for filterable particulate matter (a surrogate for non-mercury hazardous air pollution), eliminated a requirement to use continuous emissions monitoring, and reopened a loophole that allows the dirtiest coal plants to emit more mercury than their peers. In its analysis, EPA ignored tens of millions of dollars in annual health costs from increased particulate matter and ozone, resulting from its rule.
Several groups filed a Petition for Reconsideration urging EPA to reconsider the rule. We submitted comments supporting the petition, which explain the extensive scientific record undergirding EPA's estimates and demonstrate that EPA's arguments for abandoning these estimates are flawed and arbitrary.