In the News

Donald Trump is using the dying embers of his US presidency to hastily push through a procession of environmental protection rollbacks. The actions of the exiting administration will have “extremely damaging environmental consequences”, said Richard Revesz, a professor of environmental law at New York University. “Trump’s counterproductive actions have allowed the climate crisis to intensify and put the health of many Americans, especially in the most vulnerable communities, at risk by ignoring threats from pollution,” he added.

The Biden administration will likely crack down on environmental policy after the Trump administration rolled back protections. The new EPA administrator will impose much stricter standards. The preliminary list of those rumored to be considered for Biden’s EPA includes Richard Revesz, a New York University law professor and one of the nation’s leading experts on environmental law. He also served as the NYU law school dean from 2002-2013.

FERC claims carbon pricing would improve the “efficiency” of wholesale markets but does not explain how. Fortunately, in March 2020, the left-leaning Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI) published a 60-page report that clearly articulates the rationale underpinning the Commission’s proposal.

Trump began or completed the process of rolling back 125 environmental rules and regulations, according to an analysis by the Washington Post. Most of those initiatives came under legal attack. The Trump administration lost 82 of 100 legal decisions related to rule making on energy, the environment and natural resources, calculates the Institute for Policy Integrity of New York University's law school. Often these adverse rulings were based on the lack of a suitable administrative record to support the rules — the result of laziness or incompetence at the agency level.

Richard Revesz, a New York University law professor and founder of the school’s Institute for Policy Integrity, is another contender to be EPA administrator under the incoming Biden administration, according to recent press reports. Revesz tells Inside EPA: “Addressing climate change and pollution inequities, and ensuring strong environmental protection for all Americans must be at the forefront of the public policy agenda after years of alarming neglect. I want to help address these critical imperatives, whether within or outside the government.”

Host Kristin Hayes talks with Michael Livermore and Richard Revesz, cofounders of the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law and coauthors of the new book, Reviving Rationality: Saving Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Sake of the Environment and Our Health. Looking forward, Livermore and Revesz contend that a Biden administration should review federal guidelines for conducting cost-benefit analysis and update the process based on the best available science.

EPA’s Science Advisory Board is moving closer to supporting the agency’s revised guidelines on counting the costs and benefits of rules with a draft review of the plan that includes caveats on the “discount” rate and other issues. Jason Schwartz, legal director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law, said the 7 percent discount rate is unwarranted, and the SAB panel should reject it.

Biden has promised to reenter the Paris Agreement on his first day in office, reupping the United States' global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rejoining the Paris Agreement won't automatically lead to greenhouse gas reductions, said Richard Revesz, director of NYU's Institute for Policy Integrity. That work will still need to be done through policy. "But it will set a mood and tone and may immediately lead other countries to take climate change issues more seriously," he said.

To meet Biden's goal of carbon-free electricity by 2035, whatever plan his team develops will have to go well beyond the Obama Clean Power Plan, and the Biden administration can be expected to begin looking at regulating greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities beyond power plants, analysts say. "Refineries, cement plants, other facilities—their greenhouse gas emissions are not being regulated," said Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University Law School. "In order to meet his ambitious goals, he'll have to look at the potential for reductions economy-wide. And I assume that other significant categories of polluters will come under the EPA's regulatory reach. Strengthening, extending and regulating new areas will have to be undertaken." 

Biden has promised to take bold steps to undo the Trump administration's backtracking on climate and energy policy, and experts say his first moves will likely look a lot like Trump's when he took office in 2016. "There is a playbook, and it's the Trump administration playbook," said Richard Revesz, director of New York University's Institute for Policy Integrity.