In the News

A Feb. 28 webinar -- hosted by the Center for Progressive Reform, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, and Institute for Policy Integrity -- will discuss the White House’s new cost-benefit review guidance known as Circular A-4, how it can be used in comments and final rules, as well as how EPA’s updated social cost of carbon (SCC) valuations can affect pending regulations.

The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, Center for Progressive Reform, and Institute for Policy Integrity are holding a Feb. 28 webinar exploring how the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ (OIRA) new Circular A-4 guidance can be used effectively in comments and included in final regulations.

Though prior "good neighbor" regulations, such as CSAPR and its predecessor, the Clean Air Interstate Rule, have focused on power plants, the Clean Air Act does not prevent the agency from looking at other sources that contribute significantly to ozone pollution, said Jason Schwartz, legal director at New York University's Institute for Policy Integrity. "We are now in a world where actually some of the most cost-effective opportunities for reductions are in different industries," Schwartz said.

LNG supporters tout it as a win for climate, pointing to the pivotal role natural gas played in dethroning King Coal from the U.S. grid. As trade group API put it in its protest of the LNG pause: ​“U.S. LNG is critical for accelerating global emissions reductions by displacing higher-emitting fuels.” There’s one problem with that: There’s no guarantee that LNG shipments actually displace coal. “There’s really been no mechanism in place to ensure that [exports] displace dirtier sources and not cleaner sources,” said Max Sarinsky, an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, in a previous Canary Media feature on the subject.

A New York University study found that the estimated climate costs of continuing to export LNG outweigh the economic benefits for American households. "Under all scenarios evaluated, we found the gross climate damage greatly exceeded economic benefits," said Minhong Xu, an economist who co-authored the study.

The Institute for Policy Integrity found that 83 percent of victims represented by an attorney successfully obtained a protective order, as compared to just 32 percent of victims without an attorney.

If Chevron is undone, says Don Goodson, a senior attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI) at New York University, that is “a big concern,” though it is unclear “how exactly that would play out because it would be such a big change, and so many cases upheld agency actions resting on Chevron.”

“[O]ur findings provide a potential basis for DOE to rationally conclude that future export applications do not serve the public interest. At a minimum, our analysis supports DOE’s efforts to more closely scrutinize export applications and provides important data points for the agency’s consideration,” said one Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI) at New York University analysis.

New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity hosts a Feb. 7 event about modeling the energy transition, during which researchers share findings to help guide energy policy.

It stands to reason that NHTSA should use the best information possible to set CAFE standards. But, in NHTSA’s enabling statute, the U.S. Congress has made sure that NHTSA cannot do so. The statute pulls wool over the agency’s eyes in two key ways.