The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whose mission is to protect human health and the environment, has decided your health is worth a few hundred dollars — the price of a set of floor mats. That’s the EPA’s own math. Buried in its analysis of a proposed delay to vehicle pollution standards is a plan to save consumers’ pocket change while leaving out the billions of dollars in health damages the delay will cause.
In May, the EPA proposed delaying the implementation of vehicle pollution standards by two years. Unlike the GHG emissions standards, which regulate carbon dioxide and other climate-warming gases, criteria pollutant standards limit local air pollution that damages human health.
This proposed delay will put human lives at risk. In its rule summary, the EPA cites its primary justification for this delay as benefiting vehicle manufacturers and lowering consumer costs. But these goals are not the EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment.
These criteria pollutant standards were established through years of rulemaking, public comment, and industry consultation. The EPA itself has estimated that these standards will prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths annually. According to a report just published by the International Council on Clean Transportation, pollution from vehicles – the exact pollution regulated by these standards – is responsible for one premature death globally every 45 seconds.
Under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act, the EPA must set vehicle emissions standards considering feasibility, lead time, and cost. Feasibility and lead time are non-issues, since manufacturers have had years to prepare and compliant vehicles, such as EVs, are already on the market. In fact, millions of compliant vehicles are already on the road, driving hundreds of millions of miles every day, getting people and goods where they need to go while saving drivers money, reducing pollution, and saving lives.
Regarding cost, the EPA prepared a Draft Regulatory Impact Analysis. It includes dozens of tables of industry savings, technology costs, and component pricing. The conclusion? Delaying this rule could save consumers a few hundred dollars off the price of a new car. That’s basically the price of a set of floor mats. In exchange for saving a few hundred dollars off a vehicle with an average purchase price of nearly $50,000, we will lose thousands of our family members, friends, neighbors, and community members.
What wasn’t included in the EPA’s most recent analysis are the health and human costs. The analysis shows that the pollutants regulated by this rule cause infant mortality, heart attacks, stroke, asthma, lung cancer, and death — yet the EPA did not quantify or monetize the health costs of this delay. Historical EPA analyses value these health costs in the billions of dollars. So this delay will essentially trade a set of floor mats for billions of dollars in added health damages. During this affordability crisis, this makes no sense at all.
The EPA’s stated mission is to protect human health and the environment. It is not the EPA’s mission to dabble in consumer choice. It is not the EPA’s mission to shield industries from compliance costs. And it is absolutely not the EPA’s mission to save someone a few hundred dollars on a new car at the expense of millions of Americans’ health.
