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  • Critics Blast CEQ Rule Overhaul as Cutting ‘Heart’ Out of NEPA’s Purpose

    Jayni Hein of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University says the final rule -- published in the July 16 Federal Register after President Donald Trump personally unveiled it a day prior -- makes it seem like NEPA is “all about efficiently approving projects. There is a lot of new language that goes to efficiency and time limits and page limits, and the new regulation erases a lot of the discussion of the need for a careful analysis of environmental effects.”

  • Dominion Pipeline Demise Delays Closer Look at Climate Impacts

    Energy companies’ decision to cancel the Atlantic Coast pipeline has dealt an under-the-radar setback to the environmental movement, prolonging a legal campaign to force federal regulators to take a closer look at pipelines’ climate impacts. A panel of D.C. Circuit judges last year panned FERC’s climate review process as “decidedly less than dogged.” But the court hasn’t yet given a definitive answer on whether the commission’s narrow interpretation of the 2017 ruling passes muster. In the meantime, “we are seeing agencies continue to rely on these really problematic arguments without really fully weighing the climate impacts of projects,” said Jason Schwartz, legal director for New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity, which has advocated for broader reviews.

  • Trump Administration Lowered Cost of Climate Change, GAO Finds

    The Trump administration’s estimate of the social cost of climate change is seven times lower than the amount used during the Obama administration, according to a Tuesday report by the Government Accountability Office. Richard Revesz, Lawrence King professor of law and dean emeritus at NYU School of Law and director of the Institute for Policy Integrity, said the GAO’s documentation of “ignoring the best science available” will weaken the Trump administration’s efforts to uphold its environmental deregulation in court. “This is yet another example of how the administration is ignoring science and economics in its policy decisions,” Revesz said. “Pretending that climate change will have virtually no impacts on Americans is completely disingenuous, and the resulting policy failures could have terrible consequences.”

  • GAO Finds Trump Administration Devalued Carbon Costs to Roll Back Regulations

    Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity and professor of law and dean emeritus at NYU School of Law, suggested the GAO's findings provide "yet another example of how the administration is ignoring science and economics in its policy decisions."

  • Trump Rollbacks of Energy Regulations Won’t Survive a New Administration

    “I think all of this will come back to haunt Trump,” says Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. “By making very aggressive use of tools to dismantle the policies of the prior administration, Trump has made it easier for the next administration to do the same. Once the norms are broken, it's easier for the next administration to follow what looks like the new normal.”

  • The Pipeline Setbacks Reveal the Perils of Rushed Agency Approvals

    Recent groundbreaking legal and business decisions mark a turning point for longstanding advocacy against pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. And while they don’t represent any sort of change of heart in the federal government, they can be understood as examples of the laws we already had on the books working—and working particularly well in the face of incompetence. They also serve as a harbinger of future costly outcomes, especially when agencies and project proponents cut corners rather than fully analyze environmental effects and engage the public in decision making.

  • Trump Administration’s ‘Sloppy’ Work Has Led to Supreme Court Losses

    The rulings showed that in key instances Trump's administration has been unable to craft high-profile policies that will stand up in court. The administration has lost 79 out of 85 cases involving federal agencies on deregulatory or policy issues tracked by the Institute for Policy Integrity, a think tank connected to New York University School of Law.

  • This Is Not the Way to Move Beyond Net Metering

    A mysterious group has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to kill net metering. FERC should say no – not because net metering should last forever, but because states, not the feds, have the tools needed to reform it.

  • Court Rules U.S. Environment Agency Must Protect States From Upwind Air Pollution

    Richard Revesz of NYU’s School of Law and director of the Institute for Policy Integrity filed the amicus brief on behalf of Maryland and Delaware. He said the ruling made clear the EPA is obligated to prevent states from harming the air quality of their neighboring states when emissions travel downwind and “can’t cite cost as a reason to ignore the law altogether.”

  • Remote Work Is a Huge Opportunity for High-Impact Climate Policy

    The vanishing of the daily commute has brought to light the burden of cars and trucks on health and the environment. As an intentional effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, at low cost to society, policymakers and businesses should continue to encourage working from home for jobs that allow it, even after the coronavirus crisis has receded.