Trump EPA Makes It Harder to Toughen Air Pollution Standards
- Change in cost-benefit analysis could thwart Biden policies
- Agency says it will drive more durable and fair regulations
This article is for subscribers only.
The Trump administration is changing the way the Environmental Protection Agency weighs the costs and benefits of regulations meant to fight air pollution, something that could make it harder to justify tougher standards in the future.
The move announced by EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday could at least temporarily tie the hands of President-elect Joe Biden’s environmental regulators as they seek to strengthen pollution curbs relaxed under President Donald Trump. In particular, the more narrow cost-benefit analysis dictated by the EPA rule could limit the agency’s ability to cap emissions from power plants and methane leaks at oil wells.