In the News

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.

The administration’s efforts to ease environmental regulations have worsened the impact of the pandemic, according to a new report. The analysis from the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law pointed to the administration’s rollback of multiple regulations related to air pollution, power plants, ozone and particulate matter, HuffPost reports. It said the administration’s efforts were a “harbinger of the U.S. outbreak” and “exacerbated” many factors of the pandemic. 

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.”

New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI), which has often been critical of President Donald Trump’s environmental rollbacks, is seeking to document the administration’s deregulatory efforts that have worsened the health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in vulnerable communities. IPI’s July 14 report, “Weakening Our Defenses,” cites “multiple government failures” as responsible for the “staggering spread of COVID-19” in the U.S. as well as its devastating health and economic tolls.

President Donald Trump's ongoing efforts to roll back regulations designed to protect the environment, workers, and public health likely played a significant role in the spread of Covid-19 in the United States.That's according to a new report released Tuesday by New York University School of Law's Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI), a nonpartisan policy think tank. The 45-page report titled "Weakening Our Defenses" details how Trump's far-reaching deregulatory push has exacerbated several major risk factors for contracting and spreading Covid-19, such as high levels of air pollution, hazardous working conditions, and lack of adequate health insurance.

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."

Regulatory rollbacks across the entire executive branch have put more Americans at risk for the coronavirus, according to a new report from New York University's Institute for Policy Integrity. "This administration's problematic policies have increased our collective susceptibility to COVID-19, and the consequences are getting more dire by the day," said Jason Schwartz, who authored the report, called "Weakening Our Defenses: How the Trump Administration's Deregulatory Push Has Exacerbated the COVID-19 Pandemic."

While experts recommend distancing on airplanes as much as possible—urging high-risk individuals to be especially cautious—many airlines have nonetheless eschewed basic measures to ensure social distancing, and rightfully received widespread condemnation. But a battle-tested mechanism to protect safety for airline passengers already exists and could be applied immediately to reduce passenger capacity—if only the Trump administration were willing to do it.

The Trump administration’s relentless push to gut dozens of environmental and public health safeguards worsened the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, a new report from New York University School of Law found. The lengthy analysis, which NYU’s Institute for Policy Integrity published Tuesday, comes as President Donald Trump and his team act as if the coronavirus threat is waning ― when the U.S. outbreak stands out as one of the worst in the world ― and as they work to finalize a frenzy of environmental rollbacks ahead of November’s election. “The administration’s problematic policies have increased our collective susceptibility to Covid-19, and the consequences are getting more dire by the day,” Jason Schwartz, legal director at the Institute for Policy Integrity and author of the report, said in a statement.

“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.”