The Huge Benefits of Air Pollution Regulation

EPA has a new report on the benefits from the increased pollution controls required under the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.  According to E&E,

A two-decade-old crackdown on smog and soot under the Clean Air Act will yield about $2 trillion in annual benefits by 2020, according to a study that was released by U.S. EPA this morning and was touted as proof that the embattled agency’s rules are an economic boon for the American people.

Those rules prevented an estimated 160,000 deaths last year, according to the analysis, and within a decade, that number is projected to rise to about 230,000. That year, the new pollution controls will prevent an estimated 200,000 cases of heart disease, 2.4 million asthma flare-ups and 22.4 million missed school and work days.

Keep those figures in mind the next time someone complains to you about the “terrible EPA bureaucracy.”

air pollution, Clean Air Act, EPA