In the News

Social welfare would almost certainly be higher with an even tighter ozone standard.

Energy subsidies have become a hot topic on the presidential campaign trail. Jeb Bush recently called for an end to all subsidies–those that support fossil fuels as well as those aiding renewable energy. Most Democrats in the presidential race support ending tax breaks for fossil-fuel companies, but believe that subsidies for renewables are needed to help these newer industries grow rapidly. Both policy proposals are economically inefficient.

By regulating methane emissions, the EPA compels companies to act in the best interests of the public and to reduce emissions, even if individual controls aren’t immediately profitable.

It’s time for the federal government to stop leasing land to gas and oil companies, a new report argues

This is not easy to answer. Assigning a monetary value to environmental harm is notoriously tricky. There is, after all, no market for intact ecosystems or endangered species.

President Obama’s Clean Power Plan has rightly been hailed as the most important action any president has taken to address the climate crisis.

C. Boyden Gray, who helped to draw up the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments as counsel to the first President Bush, and now represents many energy-industry clients as an attorney in private practice, told me in June, after the initial case was dismissed, that there were many legal arguments to be made against the EPA carbon regulations — but he wasn’t convinced by Tribe’s. “You look at Revesz,” he says, “and you say, ‘My God, that is pretty persuasive.”

Brian Lehrer and Martha Bergmark, Executive Director of Voices for Civil Justice, discuss legal aid and the findings of a recent report from the Institute for Policy Integrity. (Audio begins at 2min 45sec.)

When domestic violence cases make their way through the legal system, accused batterers have the right to a free court-appointed attorney in criminal cases. But a domestic violence survivor isn’t assured access to reduced-cost legal services. It’s a problematic imbalance, and correcting it could likely reduce the rate of domestic violence.

“Not only are there rights- and moral-based reasons for support for domestic violence survivors, there are many economic reasons too,” said Denise Grab, senior attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity and co-author of the report.