EPA Stops Monetizing Health Benefits for Air Rules

The Environmental Protection Agency announced late Monday that it will cease calculating the monetary value of health benefits, including avoided healthcare costs and prevented deaths, when evaluating rules to limit fine particulate matter and ozone, two major air pollutants linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The decision shifts the agency's focus solely to compliance costs for businesses, amid a broader effort under the Trump administration to revise environmental regulations.

EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch stated that the agency remains committed to protecting human health and the environment, emphasizing that halting monetization does not mean disregarding or undervaluing health impacts. "Not monetizing does not equal not considering or not valuing the human health impact," Hirsch said in an emailed statement. The EPA plans to continue quantifying pollutant emissions and refine its economic modeling before resuming the practice, citing concerns that prior estimates lacked sufficient ranges or qualifiers, potentially overstating precision as pollutant levels have declined since 2000.

This approach marks a departure from longstanding practices at the EPA,...