EPA’s Lee Zeldin calls New York Times headline on pollution rules ‘fake news’
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Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), blasted the New York Times on Monday with a headline that said the agency would no longer consider “lives saved” when setting rules on air pollution.
The New York Times reported Monday, “EPA Will Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution,” citing internal emails and documents.
The report claimed that the EPA under the Trump administration plans to stop calculating “gains in health benefits” caused by limiting air pollutants such as fine particulate matter and ozone when regulating major industries.
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The New York Times has claimed that the EPA will no longer take “lives saved” into account when calculating regulations on air pollution. (iStock)
“For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has been calculating the health benefits of reducing air pollution, using cost estimates of avoided asthma attacks and premature deaths to justify clean air rules. Not anymore,” the article said.
Zeldin called the story’s headline about X “fake news” and insisted the agency still intends to consider “lives saved” when setting regulations.
“Yet another dishonest, fake news claim, courtesy of the New York Times. Not only is the EXACT OPPOSITE of this headline the actual truth, but the Times is WELL AWARE that the EPA will still consider lives saved when setting pollution limits. The Times’ dogged determination to destroy journalism is second to none.” Zeldin wrote.
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According to the New York Times report, the EPA previously told the publication that the agency was still assessing health impacts but could no longer assign a dollar value to them when doing so.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin addressed the New York Times headline about X. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
EPA spokeswoman Carolyn Holran told the New York Times: “EPA is still considering the impacts of PM2.5 and ozone emissions on human health, as the agency always has. Not making money does not mean not considering or valuing impacts on human health.”
The New York Times defended the report in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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New York Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander wrote: “Our reporting on internal EPA documents revealed that the agency no longer takes into account the health benefits of reducing fine particulate matter and ozone pollution when writing clean air regulations. An EPA spokesman did not deny this when we asked for comment, and our reports remain accurate.” he wrote.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
As head of the EPA, Zeldin worked to repeal various environmental regulations from the Biden and Obama administrations.
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Most importantly, Zeldin announced plans to repeal the 2009 Hazard Assessment regulation, which found that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and others threaten human life as they accelerate climate change. The EPA previously relied on “finding of danger” to impose strict regulations on various industries, including automotive, air travel, and energy; business leaders said it threatened the existence of their companies.
