Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2026
Abstract
Since the beginning of the Reagan administration in 1981, federal agencies have used cost-benefit analysis when making important policy decisions, especially when issuing regulations. In the years since then the methodologies have been refined and enshrined in White House guidance. The second Trump administration has upended these practices by often ignoring the benefits of regulations and only considering the costs. In doing so it often claims that there are such uncertainties about the benefits that they should be disregarded. It uses these claims in support of repealing or softening regulations that prior administrations found would save thousands of human lives.
Disciplines
Environmental Law | Law
Center/Program
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Recommended Citation
Michael B. Gerrard,
Bad Faith Disregard of Benefits and Science in Federal Environmental Deregulation,
N.Y.L.J., April 22, 2026
(2026).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4790
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