All News Clips
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White House Directs Agencies to Consider Climate Costs in Purchases, Budgets
A source briefed on the directive told The Hill that they expect it to also expand the use of climate accounting in environmental reviews for infrastructure projects. “It’s a way to balance climate effects against other economic effects,” said Max Sarinksy, senior attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law.
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Clean Power Lawyer Says IRA Provision Boosts EPA Regulatory Authority
Jack Lienke, IPI's regulatory policy director who moderated the panel, recalled the group's conference last fall — held just after the IRA's passage and a few months after the Supreme Court's decision in West Virginia v. EPA, which cited the major questions doctrine to block EPA power plant rules premised on shifting to cleaner generation. At that point, "the conventional take seemed to be — the era of regulating has ended, the era of spending has begun; goodbye neoliberalism, hello industrial policy, etc.," Lienke said.
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The Biomethane Boondoggle That Could Derail Clean Hydrogen
The GREET model will also need retooling to manage the broader complexities of measuring the greenhouse gas emissions of hydrogen production, many commenters to the Treasury Department have noted. For example, the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law has asked the Treasury Department to work quickly with DOE to develop a successor model that can accurately assess the “marginal emissions” impact of electrolyzers using a mix of clean and dirty grid power.
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Oil States Want in on the Carbon Storage Game
Today, the safe transportation and storage of carbon dioxide is shaping the public debate. “There aren’t many sequestration projects that exist yet,” Derek Sylvan, with the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University, told Jean. “So, it’s especially important for the next wave of projects to get extra scrutiny until all the necessary safety precautions are well understood.”
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As EPA Drowns in CCS Applications, Oil States Want to Take Control
“I think that this is a really critical juncture,” said Derek Sylvan, strategic director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University. “There aren’t many sequestration projects that exist yet. So, it’s especially important for the next wave of projects to get extra scrutiny until all the necessary safety precautions are well understood.”
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Bridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: EPA’s Tailpipe Emissions Standards and the Transition to Electric Vehicles
By setting standards that effectively make EVs the most cost-effective route for automakers, the EPA's proposed tailpipe emissions standards have the potential to transform the transportation sector. The projected benefits, both in terms of economic savings and environmental impact, underscore the importance of addressing market failures. A more comprehensive analysis of the energy efficiency gap would further clarify the rule’s merits.
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Is the Chevron Deference About to Be Deferred?
Recently, the US Supreme Court has not shied away from issuing precedent-setting decisions. Next year, that trend may continue when they take up the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo which will have deep implications for Chevron Deference. In a recent conversation, Dena Adler, Research Scholar at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law, remarked that, “For decades, Congress has legislated under the assumption that it can broadly authorize agencies to reasonably interpret statutes to solve problems within their sphere of expertise. The Chevron framework allows agencies to leverage their expertise to address problems and prevents Congress from getting bogged down in technical matters that are beyond its knowledge and time-intensive to address.”
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Editorial on Circular A-4 Updates Misses the Mark
The Wall Street Journal's recent editorial argues that the White House missteps in updating its approach to regulatory cost-benefit analysis. Many experts disagree. The Biden administration’s evidence-based approach to cost-benefit analysis recognizes that both benefits and costs merit evenhanded consideration. In this way, it’s a welcome update.
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EPA’s New Power Plant Rule Fits Within Court-Upheld Authority
Setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants is an important part of EPA’s legal framework for reducing climate change. In its recently proposed rule, EPA has walked the line between its congressional mandate, the Court’s West Virginia decision, and the agency’s analysis of the technological and economic realities.
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Rationally Valuing Natural Resources is Good Governance
Good governance requires that the federal government regularly account for its natural resources according to a standard set of evidence-based rules. It also requires a systematic approach to deciding when and how to account for environmental services, rather than doing so only when convenient to advance specific political objectives. Two recent federal documents take this task seriously, with the aim of creating a predictable system for how the government will take natural resources into account when making decisions.