White House EPA Says Your Life Ain't Worth a Dime in Pollution Cost-Benefit Analysis!

TL;DR: In a move that'll make your jaw drop, the Trump administration's EPA has decided your life, and the health of millions, ain't worth a dime when they're weighing the costs of pollution. They're ditching health benefits from their calculations, only considering industry's compliance costs, effectively valuing human life at zero.

Meta: Trump EPA will no longer factor human health into pollution rule cost-benefit analyses, valuing lives at zero.

Alright, you think you've heard it all, right? Well, let me tell you, this one's a real head-scratcher. The Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just announced they're basically cooking the books when it comes to industrial pollution. From now on, they're not gonna consider how much human lives or health benefits are worth when setting air pollution rules. Nope, nada, zilch. Instead, they'll only look at what it costs corporations to comply. So, according to them, your life? Literally worth nothing. I ain't even kidding, folks!

This ain't just some bureaucratic jargon. We're talking about pollutants like PM2.5 (those tiny particles that mess with your lungs and heart) and Ozone (the stuff that causes smog and gives your lungs a sunburn). These aren't minor annoyances; they restrict opportunities, decrease quality of life, and cause premature death. Historically, the EPA calculated these impacts – like how Biden's EPA rules were projected to save Americans $250 billion a year and 200,000 lives from clean air effects. But now? That's all out the window.

The Fossil Fuel Playbook

Why the sudden change? Well, when your agency's chief saboteur, Lee Zeldin, has taken hundreds of thousands in fossil fuel bribes, you start seeing a pattern. The fossil fuel industry doesn't want regulations that cost them money, even if those regulations save your life. So, the EPA's new stance is to ignore the benefits entirely and only focus on the costs to polluters. It's like letting the fox guard the henhouse, then letting him decide how many chickens he's allowed to eat.

This policy isn't just about air pollution. The EPA also plans to limit states' and tribes' authority to protect clean water from pipelines and other infrastructure projects. They're making it harder to assess pollution risks and reject harmful projects. It's a systematic effort to strip away environmental protections, all while claiming estimates on the value of human life are "too wide to be considered." Funny how they're not too wide to be considered zero, though, right?

Legal Battles and the Future

This outrageous move is almost guaranteed to face legal challenges. Even conservative judges have argued that both costs and benefits must be considered in setting regulations. Ignoring benefits entirely flies in the face of established administrative procedures and a 2015 Supreme Court case (Michigan v. EPA). So, there's a good chance this gets overturned in court, just like recent Department of Energy moves to shut down wind power and cancel EV grants were reversed.

But the intent is crystal clear: this administration has no interest in your life, your health, or lowering your costs. Their goal is to funnel more of your hard-earned wealth to the industries actively poisoning you. It's a stark reminder that "We the People" is becoming an increasingly irrelevant concept in the face of corporate kleptocracy.

What’s Next

Expect a fierce legal battle from environmental groups and concerned states to challenge these changes. The outcome will be crucial for the future of environmental protection in the US and could determine how much industrial pollution industries are allowed to get away with. For clean-tech industries, this policy creates an uneven playing field, making fossil fuel alternatives seem less 'cost-effective' by ignoring the true price of their dirty counterparts.

So, stay woke, stay informed, and remember: when they say your life is worth nothing, it's time to make some noise. They can cook the books, but they can't cook us all, baby!