A host of Biden administration air quality rules will collectively deliver long-term health gains worth trillions of dollars, former EPA officials write in a new report aimed at refuting an anti-regulatory critique by appointees of former President Donald Trump.
Through 2050, the 16 EPA rules that strengthen soot standards, further curb vehicle tailpipe pollution and cut emissions from various industries will cumulatively save about 200,000 lives and yield more than $250 billion in annual net health benefits, according to the report, titled “Breathing Easy” and released Thursday by the Environmental Protection Network.
By reducing air pollution, the stricter requirements will also avert an estimated 107 million asthma attacks, the report says. The value of the projected health benefits is probably an underestimate, the authors add, because EPA does not try to calculate the dollars-and-cents upside stemming from lower rates of cancer, diabetes and other diseases linked to some extent to dirty air.
The group’s findings are also intended as a rebuttal to Project 2025, a governing blueprint for the next Republican president assembled by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. While Trump, now seeking a second presidential term under the GOP banner, has denied any connection to the project, the EPA chapter was assembled by alums from his administration, led by former agency chief of staff Mandy Gunasekara.
