The new standards could prevent up to 1,600 premature deaths from air pollution every year—but that's not the bottom line EPA chief Scott Pruitt is concerned about.
“I got here on the second day of March, and that budget was already written," said Perry. "My job is to sit here in front of you and to robustly defend it.”
The agency has asked a federal court to put a 90-day pause on a lawsuit while it considers whether it should continue to defend its own emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks.