In the News

On September 2, President Joe Biden nominated NYU Law’s Dean Emeritus Richard Revesz, AnBryce Professor of Law, to be the next administrator of the US Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). OIRA, contained within the executive branch, reviews rules drafted by federal agencies and oversees the implementation of rules and regulations across the federal government.

The White House also announced on Friday that Biden would nominate Richard Revesz to a powerful regulatory job in its budget office: the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Revesz, a law professor at New York University, specializes in environmental and regulatory law. If confirmed by the Senate to lead OIRA, he would have a key role in the oversight of executive climate action.

President Joe Biden made the anticipated nomination of Richard Revesz, a dean emeritus and professor at the New York University School of Law, for a key role overseeing regulations coming out of the executive brand. On Friday, the White House put up Revesz for the role of administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, promoting Revesz as an expert in environmental and regulatory law. The administration emphasized his work "advocating for protective and rational climate change and environmental policies." The role requires Senate confirmation. 

President Biden on Friday announced plans to nominate environmental law expert Richard Revesz to lead the small but powerful White House office in charge of overseeing federal regulations. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which sits within the White House Office of Management and Budget, has been without a permanent occupant since Biden took office.  

President Joe Biden has nominated environmental law attorney Richard Revesz to lead the White House’s regulations office, which hasn’t had a permanent leader in nearly two years. Biden nominated Revesz, a New York University law professor who specializes in climate change and regulation, to lead the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The office is little-known outside Washington but wields tremendous power over how federal agencies execute the president’s agenda.

President Joe Biden is nominating Richard Revesz of New York University (NYU) law school to serve as the administrator of the White House Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a key office that conducts interagency reviews of EPA and other federal rulemakings before they are released. Revesz, who founded NYU’s Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI), has long been considered a top nominee but could not be reached for comment.

If courts can simply wipe away regulations at their discretion, it will have profound effects on how environmental agencies behave. According to the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law, judicial intervention led to significant setbacks to President Trump’s agenda, with the administration winning a mere 6 percent of cases against it.

Amid the national effort to reduce emissions, state laws play a key role, according to the United States Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors working to turn back climate change. The alliance released a resource Monday, “The Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases: A Guide for State Officials,” to help leaders better understand the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions. It was put together by the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law and is freely available to public officials.

After a meteoric rise in production over the past decade, the United States has become the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world. Yet, the analysis behind LNG terminal and export approvals overlooks climate and environmental justice impacts, despite promises of imminent reform. Policy Integrity’s new report provides a comprehensive look at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) past practice in this space and offers recommendations for improving their review of the climate and environmental justice impacts of LNG approvals.

The White House released findings today claiming that the new climate law could cut the economic impact of greenhouse gas emissions by up to $1.9 trillion by 2050. The freshly signed Inflation Reduction Act funneled $369 billion into greening the economy. Estimates have shown it could decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by the end of the decade. “Scientists and economists have been studying this for decades,” said Max Sarinsky of the Institute for Policy Integrity. “Their work is telling us that if you slash emissions the benefits of society will be extraordinary. That’s exactly what the social cost of carbon shows.”