EPA UNVEILS NEW PLAN TO BOOST ECOSYSTEM BENEFITS IN REGULATIONS

摘要

EPA recently unveiled a plan that could help the agency address the longstanding issue of how to characterize environmental benefits in regulatory analyses — a move that could help prioritize efforts to protect certain ecological systems and justify more stringent regulations. EPA released its Ecological Benefits Assessments Strategic Plan (EBASP), which aims to help the agency estimate the value provided by ecological benefits, as well as the value of regulations preserving those benefits. The document, released Dec. 12, is among the first to help the agency identify and quantify the value of ecological benefits related to existing and future policies, according to agency documents and a spokesman.