EPA pats itself on the back

It is shown that the EPA greatly overestimated the net benefits of the Clean Air Act amendments. The agency deliberately neglected the cost of complying with a well-known, and expensive requirement of the act and ignored its own scientific advisory board's advice to include indirect costs. EPA describes its key benefits estimate as a "central" case, although it is better interpreted as an upper-bound estimate. It is likely that there will be negligible net benefits in 2010. Moreover, EPA's focus on aggregate net benefits obscures the gains that might result from better design and administration of the clear air program.