{"id":476294,"date":"2026-02-15T10:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/476294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T10:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:18:16","slug":"democratic-senators-launch-inquiry-into-epas-repeal-of-key-air-pollution-enforcement-measure-us-environmental-protection-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/476294\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic senators launch inquiry into EPA\u2019s repeal of key air pollution enforcement measure | US Environmental Protection Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than three dozen Democratic senators have begun an independent inquiry into the US Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> (EPA) following a huge change in how the agency measures the health benefits of reducing air pollution that is widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a regulatory impact analysis, the EPA said it would stop assigning a monetary value to the health benefits associated with regulations on fine particulate matter and ozone. The agency argued that the estimates contain too much uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Previously, the EPA placed a dollar figure on the benefits of cleaner air, factoring in outcomes such as fewer premature deaths and reduced illness, including asthma<\/a> attacks.<\/p>\n

The 2009 endangerment finding determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare and should therefore be controlled by the EPA. By revoking it<\/a> on Thursday, officials eliminated the legal foundation enabling the government to control planet-heating pollution.<\/p>\n

The senators criticized the updated policy as \u201cparticularly troubling\u201d and said the repeal \u201cdestroys that framework and results in a failure to faithfully execute EPA\u2019s statutory mandate to protect human health\u201d, according to a letter sent to the EPA on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The effort is being led by the ranking member of the Senate committee on the environment and public works, Sheldon Whitehouse. The lawmakers have asked the EPA to provide documents and details explaining how it reached its decision by 26 February.<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats are seeking to know the reasoning behind the EPA\u2019s move; what factors the agency will consider when carrying out Clean Air Act rule-making; whether it has considered no longer quantifying health effects for other pollutants; and whether it consulted any outside parties, including the secretary of health and human services, the US surgeon general, or public health specialists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is literally zero surprise that they knew their hand-picked climate deniers weren\u2019t putting out real science,\u201d Whitehouse wrote on X<\/a> in response to an article suggesting the Trump administration ignored the recommendations of scientists. \u201cTheir nonsense has never been real, but part of a fraudulent propaganda campaign, designed by fossil fuel to protect its \u2018free-to-pollute\u2019 business model.\u201d<\/p>\n

The repeal is part of Trump\u2019s sweeping attacks on US climate policy. On Thursday, he said the endangerment finding formed \u201cthe basis for the green new scam\u201d. Since returning to office last January, the Trump administration<\/a> has taken aggressive steps to roll back pollution regulations and promote fossil fuel production. Critics argue that this anti-environmental agenda benefits the president\u2019s fossil fuel-industry donors.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s decision drew broad condemnation from climate scientists and advocates focused on environmental protection, public health and economic justice. Asked on Thursday to address environmental concerns about the new rule, Trump said: \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has nothing to do with public health,\u201d he said of the endangerment finding. \u201cThis is all a scam, a giant scam.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than three dozen Democratic senators have begun an independent inquiry into the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-476294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}