Science Advisory Board set to probe cost-benefit rule

摘要

An influential EPA advisory committee is set to scrutinize the agency's hotly contested plan to overhaul the forecasts of the costs and gains from future Clean Air Act regulations. The Science Advisory Board (SAB) plans two public teleconferences in the next two months "to review the scientific and technical basis of the proposed rule," according to an announcement set for publication in tomorrow's Federal Register. EPA is taking public feedback on the proposal, officially titled "Increasing Consistency and Transparency in Considering Benefits and Costs in the Clean Air Act Rulemaking Process," and hopes to issue the final version by November. "There are several scientific/economic topics in the rule that have not had external peer review," SAB Chairman Michael Honeycutt said in an email this morning when asked why the proposal warranted the board's attention. Under a recently adopted policy for making those decisions, Honeycutt said he and a small group of other board members unanimously agreed on the need for a review after getting an EPA briefing earlier this month.