In the News

Ricky Revesz, a New York University professor whose name has been floated as a possible Biden OIRA administrator, said generally the Trump administration's regulatory aggressiveness is "unusual." "It's part of a larger story to get stuff out at the very end where the regulatory initiatives are on the whole extremely harmful," he said. Revesz pointed to a Health and Human Services Department proposal that would force all the agency's regulations to sunset within 10 years, unless a review is completed.

Transmission is an area where DOE watchers say they are hoping Granholm takes the lead. "In the absence of legislation, critical long-distance transmission can be developed by applying existing federal legal authorities," researchers said in a report this month out of NYU Law School's Institute for Policy Integrity and Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. It pointed at a 2005 act establishing DOE's authority to advance "national interest" transmission projects as the critical lever.

"To be clear, I don't read this as signaling that, given the chance, Clements would somehow make FERC into ‘an environmental regulator,'" said Justin Gundlach, senior attorney at the New York University School of Law's Institute for Policy Integrity. "I think her comment reflects a widely held view: climate change bears heavily on the energy sector in numerous ways, so if FERC is doing its job properly it can't ignore climate change."

The field for EPA administrator was opened to a half-dozen new contenders, including former EPA officials Michael Regan of North Carolina and Heather McTeer Toney of Mississippi and clean-air legal expert Richard Revesz.

In a December 14 amicus brief submitted in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit case, State of California, et al., v Andrew Wheeler, IPI says EPA’s failure to account for the “environmental cost” of foregone emissions reductions for methane and volatile organic compounds results in a deeply flawed cost-benefit analysis supporting its September 14 rule.

In the past week, transition team leaders asked for a list of additional candidates for Environmental Protection Agency administrator—potentially one of Mr. Biden’s most important and contentious nominations. The list includes Richard Revesz, a law professor at New York University.

Policy analysts are urging President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration to use existing authority to expand the nation's electric grid and to consider boosting the role of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. A study out of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy and New York University's Institute for Policy Integrity focused on the need for more long-distance transmission capacity to ship carbon-free solar and wind power across the country.

At EPA, new names have been circulating in the last week. Michael Regan, the head of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, and Richard Revesz, a professor and former dean at New York University School of Law, are reportedly under consideration to lead the agency.

Transition advisers have decided to widen the pool of potential picks, according to people familiar with the matter. Contenders for the EPA post include North Carolina regulator Michael Regan, New York University’s Richard Revesz and National Wildlife Federation president Collin O’Mara.

Recent events have set off a new scramble to find a new candidate to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Possibilities now include Richard L. Revesz, a law professor and former dean of the New York University School of Law; Michael S. Regan, who currently serves as head of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality; and Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles. One member of the Biden transition staff said that a final E.P.A. choice might not come until after Christmas.