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In the News

  • Offshore Drilling: Why It Makes Economic Sense to Wait

    The Obama administration recently reversed its plan to allow drilling off of the mid-Atlantic coast, which it proposed in 2010, suspended after the Deepwater Horizon spill, then floated again in 2015. Critics have attacked the Atlantic decision, arguing that the government is turning its back on much-needed revenue and resources.

    But this line of thinking rests on a flawed economic rationale that ignores our ability to revisit decisions in the future. This “now-or-never” fallacy has driven U.S. offshore leasing policy for years. Convincing the Department of the Interior to finally adopt an economically rational approach that values delaying risky decisions required a lengthy advocacy campaign and a federal lawsuit. Offshore leasing decisions can be incredibly complex, and should be informed by balanced economic analysis.

  • Climate Policy’s Advocates Take Page From Same-Sex Marriage Playbook

    “The reason there is all this focus is that this is arguably the most important environmental regulation ever,” said Richard L. Revesz, the director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law. This week, the institute and several other groups will file briefs in support of the E.P.A.’s position in the case.

  • Why the U.S. is Cutting Carbon Emissions No Matter what Happens with the Supreme Court

    “If Scalia’s seat remains vacant when the Clean Power Plan reaches the high court, a 4-4 vote would result in an automatic affirmance of the D.C. Circuit’s decision on the rule,” says Jack Lienke, an attorney with the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law.

  • Next Supreme Court Justice Will Be Crucial to Climate Change

    Last month scholars from the law schools of Columbia University, New York University and the University of California, Los Angeles, released a report that suggested there is a provision in the Clean Air Act that would allow the E.P.A. to require states to reduce emissions that endangered other countries if such countries provided reciprocal protections to the United States.

  • The Supreme Court Weighs in on President Obama’s Clean Power Plan

    Richard Revesz spoke with Marketplace about the Supreme Court’s unprecedented ruling, staying the Clean Power Plan until a lower court can rule on its legality.

  • Obama’s Hidden Climate Leverage

    A few weeks ago, a group of 13 prominent environmental law professors and attorneys released a 91-page report outlining this new approach, which would allow EPA to use existing laws to quickly and efficiently regulate all pollution sources, in all states — not just power plants and cars. The experts concluded, “It could provide one of the most effective and efficient means to address climate change pollution in the United States.”

  • This audacious plan would let Obama enact an economy-wide cap-and-trade system

    A group of legal scholars have recently drawn attention to a somewhat obscure section of the Clean Air Act that they say could unlock greater executive authority — which even the economy-wide system wonks so fervently desire.The analysis, from the Institute for Policy Integrity, the Sabin Center for Climate Change, and the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, focuses on Section 115 of the Clean Air Act, the provision on “international air pollution.”

  • Recouping Coal’s Costs to Taxpayers

    In managing federal lands, Interior has the statutory obligation to earn “fair market value” for the American public when developing natural resources, and to balance energy production with environmental preservation. By using modern economic tools, Interior can illuminate coal’s hidden costs and make straightforward reforms to the federal coal program, benefiting the American public.

  • Why Does So Much U.S. Coal Come from Federal Land?

    “The federal government really does have market share,” says Jayni Hein, policy director for New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity and co-author of a recent report, “Illuminating the Hidden Costs of Coal.” While a similar move for oil and gas leases might simply shift more of the production to private land, she says, the coal industry doesn’t have that flexibility.

  • Obama Announces Moratorium on New Federal Coal Leases

    “This is a major shift that helps modernize the federal coal program,” said Jayni Hein, policy director at the Institute for Policy Integrity. “This planning process will disclose the environmetal and social impacts of coal leasing, which are extensive.”