rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/epa-says-our-lives-are-worth-0-congress-must-intervenenow?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-epa-says-our-lives-are-worth-0-congress-must-intervenenow' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Hip Hop Caucus https://actionnetwork.org/groups/hip-hop-caucus https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/share_options/facebook_images/000/616/234/original/epa-health-cost-savings-action-hip-hop-caucus.jpg In internal emails and official documents, it was revealed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has changed its approach to calculating the benefits of clean air. While the agency will still tally how much it costs companies to reduce pollution, it has stopped assigning a dollar value to the health benefits like fewer asthma attacks, hospital visits, or premature deaths. This change has already been implemented. On January 13, 2026, the EPA finalized a rule for gas power plants that counted industry costs but treated health benefits as worth $0. This decision hits hardest where pollution is already worst: Black, Brown, and low-income communities near highways, factories, power plants, and petrochemical facilities Children, elders, and people with asthma, heart disease, or lung conditions Workers who spend their days breathing polluted air near fossil fuel infrastructure The EPA has revised rules before. It can do so again. Instead of throwing out this critical measure, the agency should strengthen its rules by fully accounting for health benefits. Congress wrote the laws the EPA is required to carry out. Members of Congress have the power and responsibility to step in now and protect the people who elected them. Tell your members of Congress to demand that the EPA restore health benefits to its official rulemaking calculations and treat human lives and public health as non-negotiable. Write to your member of Congress today. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/epa-says-our-lives-are-worth-0-congress-must-intervenenow