Study: Co-benefits constitute nearly half of monetized perks
A story from E&E News details an RFF working paper on EPA co-benefits in light of EPA's proposal to set rules for cost-benefit analyses.
As EPA seeks to squelch the use of health "co-benefits" to underpin future Clean Air Act regulations, a new report questions the agency's seemingly haphazard handling of them in a series of high-profile rulemakings.
As grounds for scrapping the legal justification for an Obama-era power plant air toxics rule, for example, EPA this spring cited its heavy reliance on expected co-benefits from reductions in particulate matter, according to the report, released today by Resources for the Future, a centrist think tank based in Washington.
But in seeking to roll back another set of regulations on the oil and gas industry, the agency opted against specifically setting standards for methane releases on the assumption that lower emissions of the potent greenhouse gas would be a "co-benefit" of regulations on volatile organic compounds, the report says.
