EPA Restricts How Science Can Be Used to Shape Regulations (2)

Narrowing the science underpinning EPA regulations should make the agency’s rules more defensible, removing judges from disputes about the validity of research, the agency’s chief said.

The Environmental Protection Agency rule, released Tuesday (RIN:2080-AA14), would restrict the agency’s ability to use scientific studies that include patients’ private medical data when issuing regulations. It’s a sharp break from its decades-old approach to new rules, which relied on those kinds of studies to issue some of its most expansive regulations, including air quality standards for fine particle pollution.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler defended the new rule, called ...