Trump’s EPA plans to ignore health affects of air pollution

The article discusses the Trump administration’s plan to change how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) values human life in its regulation of air pollution. Since the Reagan administration, the EPA has assigned a monetary value to human life to perform cost-benefit analyses when setting pollution controls, balancing economic costs against health benefits. The Trump administration intends to discard this long-standing practice, which could undermine regulations designed to reduce harmful air pollutants like ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). These pollutants have well-documented links to serious health problems, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory issues, and adverse effects on infants, with PM2.5 responsible for millions of deaths worldwide annually. The policy shift comes amid growing concerns about pollution in regions hosting data centers powered by dirtier energy sources, such as Elon Musk’s xAI facility near Memphis, Tennessee—an area already noted for high asthma rates. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports the administration’s move, viewing it as a step toward “common-sense” regulatory