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New York Times Makes A Huge Correction On An Article About Trump’s Enviro Rollbacks — Oops

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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The New York Times corrected an error in an article it published Sunday evening that appeared to massively inflate the benefits associated with an Obama-era environmental regulation.

The original version of an article TheNYT published about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to weaken a regulation covering a chemical emitted from coal-burning power plants suggested the rule would create $6 billion in benefits, not the $6 million that the Obama administration initially expected.

The correction states: “Correction: September 30, 2018: An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly the initial estimate of health benefits from the mercury rule. The Obama administration estimated those benefits to be worth $6 million per year, not $6 billion.”

A snapshot of correction TheNYT made about article on Trump’s environmental rollback.

EPA spokesman John Konkus said he believes the error demonstrates the media’s willingness to inflate the rule’s benefits.

“The New York Times either purposefully inflated the Obama Administration health benefits or simply has no idea what they’re writing about,” Konkus said in a statement Tuesday to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

He added: “Either way the American media needs to keep a skeptical eye when the New York Times writes an unbelievable story about the Trump EPA — because when the New York Times writes an unbelievable story, it’s unbelievable for a reason.”

TheNYT has not yet responded to TheDCNF’s request for comment about what led to the error.

Former President Barack Obama crafted the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (or MATS), which found that the EPA must factor in additional “co-benefits” when evaluating a regulation’s cost compared to its expected health benefits. Obama was able to justify expensive regulation to the coal industry by adding additional health benefits to its cost-and-analysis evaluation.

Obama’s EPA originally found that forcing coal-fired plants to use the mercury control technology would cost an estimated $9.6 billion a year, one of the most expensive clean air regulations to date. This cost was far higher than the expected annual health savings of $6 million. (RELATED: Trump Administration Rolls Back Obama-Era Offshore Drilling Regulation)

A justification was eventually made after the administration was able to rack up health saving numbers by enabling the MATS rule, with co-benefits adding another $80 billion. The Trump administration’s new evaluation eliminates the “co-benefit,” sharply reducing official health savings of implementing the mercury rule.

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