Association of temporary Environmental Protection Agency regulation suspension with industrial economic viability and local air quality in California, United States.

Background: This study seeks to answer two questions about the impacts of the 2020 Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement regulation rollbacks: is this suspension bolstering the economic viability of industries as oil and manufacturing executives claim they will and are these regulations upholding the agency's mission of protecting the environment?

Results: To answer the former question, we utilized 6 months of state employment level data from California, United States, as a method of gauging the economic health of agency-regulated industries. We implemented a machine learning model to predict weekly employment data and a -test to indicate any significant changes in employment. We found that, following California's state-issued stay-at-home order and the agency's regulation suspension, oil and certain manufacturing industries had statistically significant lower employment values.