EPA air reg’s price tag: Huge, politically toxic — and wrong

摘要

It was a big, brassy number that blared its way into a Senate debate, myriad court filings and even a Supreme Court opinion. And it was almost certainly wrong. $9.6 billion. That was EPA’s upper limit forecast of the annual compliance costs for its landmark regulations on mercury and other hazardous power plant emissions issued in late 2011 (E&E News PM, Dec. 21, 2011). Now, that price tag is a key issue for the Biden administration in grappling with one of the Trump administration’s most polarizing rollbacks. For foes of the new standards, EPA’s 2011 estimate became a totem as they seized on the lopsided contrast with the relatively small dollar amount of direct health benefits expected from reduced pollution.