Statement on the EPA excluding Human Life from Cost-Benefit Analysis for Rulemaking

Washington, D.C. -- Today, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) released the following statement in response to the EPA's decision to exclude human life from cost-benefit analysis for rulemaking:

"The EPA’s decision to stop accounting for the lives saved by clean air rules is a dangerous abandonment of its core mission: protecting human health. For decades, well-established science has shown that reducing air pollution prevents asthma attacks, hospitalizations, chronic disease, and premature deaths. Ignoring those benefits while counting only industry costs assigns a value of zero to human life and makes it easier for polluters to do more harm.

"The EPA exists to protect people and the environment, not to promote corporate profits. Any cost-benefit analysis that excludes human life is dishonest and contrary to decades of precedent. Clean air is not negotiable."