Two recent US EPA rulemakings will impact the way the agency creates future environmental regulations. Both rules deal with how EPA uses available environmental and public health data to make decisions about how stringently to regulate certain pollutants.
Consistency and Transparency for Clean Air Act Rules
On December 23, 2020, EPA finalized the rule titled
Increasing Consistency and Transparency in Considering Benefits and Costs in the Clean Air Act Rulemaking Process.
The rule bolsters EPA procedures for considering costs and benefits of new Clean Air Act rulemakings.
The rule includes three major elements, it:
- Requires EPA to prepare a Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) for all future significant proposed and final regulations under the Clean Air Act; and
- Requires EPA to use the best available scientific information when creating a BCA, using now codified best practices from EPA and OMB guidance; and
- Adds procedural requirements to increase transparency in the presentation and consideration of BCA results
Transparency, Pivotal Science
To cultivate more relevant underlying data for future rulemakings, EPA finalized
Strengthening Transparency in Pivotal Science Underlying Significant Regulatory Actions and Influential Scientific Information on January 6, 2021.
This rule has two distinct facets:
- When promulgating significant regulatory actions or developing influential scientific information using quantitative data relating to the dosage or exposure to a pollutant, contaminant, or substance and an effect, EPA will give greater consideration to dose-response data that is most easily accessible for independent study; and
- EPA must identify and make publicly available the data used to inform a significant regulatory action at the proposed or draft stage to the extent practicable.
This rulemaking is expected to increase the quality and accessibility of the data driving many of EPA’s most pivotal regulatory actions.
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