"The Trump EPA has tried to stack the deck against tougher standards for smog and soot by recruiting anti-regulatory advocates for key advisory committees.
Administrator Andrew Wheeler and his predecessor, Scott Pruitt, have spent the past two years preparing for mandated reviews of Clean Air Act standards for ozone and particulate pollutants by stocking the seven-member Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) with experts who have a record of opposing strong controls on hazardous pollutants. Most of them come from state regulatory agencies or affected industries.
Climate policies are drawn into these hazardous pollution standards. EPA has cited health "co-benefits" that result from reducing fine particulate matter as a byproduct of greenhouse gas rules (Climatewire, July 22).
"The cost-benefit piece in particular is so crucial to the way we do so many things at EPA — so if they kill that, it affects our ability to do any environmental regulation in the future," said Gretchen Goldman of the Union of Concerned Scientists."
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