From NYT, “Trump’s E.P.A. Has Put a Value on Human Life: Zero Dollars”:

Last week, the E.P.A. stopped estimating the monetary value of lives saved when setting limits on two of the most widespread deadly air pollutants, fine particulate matter and ozone. Instead, the agency is calculating only the costs to companies of complying with pollution regulations.

…

Brigit Hirsch, an E.P.A. spokeswoman, said in an email that the agency was still considering the health effects of fine particulate matter and ozone, but was no longer assigning them a dollar value in cost-benefit analyses. “We’re not putting a dollar value on those impacts right now,” she said. “That does not mean E.P.A. is ignoring or undervaluing them.”

Ms. Hirsch did not comment on whether the agency would stop using the value of a statistical life for all regulations beyond clean-air rules. But in general, she said, “saying we aren’t attaching a dollar figure to health effects is like saying we aren’t putting a price tag on clean air or safe drinking water. Dollars and cents don’t define their worth.”

Yeesh. Here’s some of my thoughts on benefit-cost calculations with statistical value of life estimates, from four years ago.

I look forward to hearing what my colleagues, who actually teach benefit-cost analysis at La Follette, think…