Overview
- The EPA’s regulatory impact analysis for a finalized nitrogen oxide rule on gas turbines omits dollar values for health benefits from PM2.5 and ozone, marking a break with decades of practice.
- The new NOx rule is less restrictive than a prior proposal and, for some gas plants, relaxes protections that had stood for about two decades, according to the rule’s summary and critics’ assessments.
- EPA officials say they will continue to quantify emissions and industry compliance costs and will still consider health impacts, with plans to resume monetization after updating methods.
- Administrator Lee Zeldin rejected claims that the agency is abandoning health considerations, stating that lives saved will continue to factor into pollution-limit decisions.
- Environmental and legal experts warn the change could ease rollbacks of pollution limits, obscure the value of avoided deaths and illnesses, and invite court challenges, noting that prior EPA analyses found large net benefits from tighter PM2.5 standards.