"The senior discount factor that has caused so much concern has been stopped," Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Whitman said at a Baltimore public hearing on aging.

One way the EPA measures the impact of environmental legislation is to assign a monetary value to the health benefits of cleaner air and water.

Whitman said the method was never used for decision making and was meant to augment traditional research.

The new method will measure just the cost of years of lives saved instead of also including the cost of total lives saved. With the age adjustment factor taken out, now a year for anyone over age 65 will be worth $434,000, not $263,000.

Environmentalists said they were skeptical about Whitman's announcement, saying the controversial calculation would still remain as an alternative in EPA research and proposals.

"A democracy is not an accounting firm," said the National Resources Defense Council's John Walke. "Notions that may be sensible but merciless in a commercial setting have no place in public policy."