EPA POLICY CHIEF EYES CONTENTIOUS METHOD TO ESTIMATE RULES' BENEFITS

EPA's policy office chief is urging staff economists to adopt a controversial method of assessing the financial benefits of preserving segments of people's lives rather than entire lives, which could dramatically reduce EPA's ability to justify air and other regulations under cost-benefit tests, sources say. The directive is part of deliberations over an EPA-wide effort to revise the agency's internal guidelines for placing dollar values on prevented cases of illness and death resulting from EPA rules, analyses which accompany regulatory...