Cost-Benefit Proposal Ignores Environmental Justice, EPA Told

The EPA failed to consider environmental justice impacts of its proposal to overhaul how it calculates the costs and benefits of Clean Air Act rules, violating an executive order that dates back a quarter century, groups opposed to the measure testified Wednesday.

The order, which former President Bill Clinton signed in 1994, required federal agencies to identify and address any disproportionately high adverse health or environmental effects of their actions on minority and low-income populations, to the extent practicable and permitted by law.

“EPA expressly abstains from evaluating the environmental justice impacts of the proposal on communities of color and ...