EPA Issues New Regulation It Says Will Strengthen Science Used For Rulemaking

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a regulation that limits the type of research the agency can use by giving “greater consideration to studies where the underlying dose-response data are available in a manner sufficient for independent validation.”

What does that language mean?

As the American Action Forum explains, “[T]he basic goal of the rule was to make sure that scientific justification for regulatory actions was available to be replicated and validated.” According to the Washington, D.C.-based newspaper The Hill, the rule would allow the EPA administrator “to make an exception for any study they deem important” and could lead to the exclusion of “public health research as the agency issues guidance or takes other actions.”

Before finalizing the regulation, the EPA took more than one million comments from the public.

This move comes after the EPA codified changes to the Clean Air Act that takes the economic impact of proposed regulations into greater consideration.

While the EPA began implementing the rule last week, according to Politico, environmental groups have pledged to pressure the incoming Biden administration to “unwind” it. Stay tuned to Connecting the Dots, which will report on any future changes to this rule.