Thursday, May 23rd, 2019

Trump’s EPA is changing its math to make clean power plan rollback seem less deadly

Author: Olivia Rosane
Source: Nation of Change/EcoWatch
Publication Date: May 22, 2019
Link: Trump’s EPA is changing its math to make clean power plan rollback seem less deadly

Stephan: In all the months of the Trump administration, I don't think anything more clearly illustrates the fundamental dishonesty of this band of crooks, thieves, and incompetents. We don't like your facts, scientists, so we will change the standards by which facts are gathered so that they come out the way we want.

Credit: Seth Anderson / Flickr

When Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan in August 2018, its own estimates said the reduced regulations could lead to 1,400 early deaths a year from air pollution by 2030.

Now, the EPA wants to change the way it calculates the risks posed by particulate matter pollution, using a model that would lower the death toll from the new plan, The New York Times reported Monday. Five current or former EPA officials familiar with the plan told The Times that the new method would assume there is no significant health gain by lowering air pollution levels below the legal limit. However, many public health experts say that there is no safe level of particulate matter exposure, which has long been linked to heart and lung disease.

“Using fake math to hide the death toll from […]

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