In the News

An academic center that supports tough environmental rules is pressing the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to address risks gas cooking stoves pose to public health, opening another front against the fossil fuel’s use as various state and local governments seek to limit gas-fired appliances over climate change concerns.

You may have noticed quite a few headlines recently about EPA, NHTSA, cars, trucks, waivers, model years, and lawsuits. It’s worth breaking down this flurry of activity, all of which seeks to address vehicle emissions. Here, I’ll clarify the current status of the five separate proceedings happening right now, and offer a preview of what’s to come.

Incandescent bulbs offer basically no advantages to consumers, and their high electricity demands make them worse for the climate and environment as well. The Biden administration's proposed lightbulb efficiency standards would create enormous value for society, including consumer cost savings and reduced climate pollution.

Investors focused on environmental, social and governance issues and progressives have urged the SEC to make companies report that information, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have raised concerns about compliance costs. However, courts have recognized the SEC's authority to conduct such cost-benefit analysis, according to Jack Lienke, regulatory policy director at NYU's Institute for Policy Integrity, and legal fellow Alexander Song in a legal analysis released last week on a potential climate disclosure rule.

A group of watchdogs recently asked the FTC to issue new rules that would ban drip pricing. You can let the FTC what you’d like to see them do with this request by sending them a message here.

The new methane rule goes beyond merely undoing the damage of the Trump years. The proposal is broader than its Obama-era predecessors, and once finalized, will apply to hundreds of thousands of previously unregulated emission sources, like wells, storage tanks, and compressor station. That is because unlike the prior standards, Biden’s rule will cover equipment of all ages. 

We support the SEC’s plan to propose a rule requiring standardized climate risk disclosures. Doing so would further the Commission’s mandate to protect both investors and the public interest. Our forthcoming paper in the N.Y.U. Journal of Legislation and Public Policy provides several recommendations for how the SEC should build its institutional knowledge as it designs and enforces a climate risk disclosure regime.

EPA has the authority under the Clean Air Act to set emissions standards for new fossil fuel-fired heating appliances used in millions of residential and commercial buildings that cumulatively generate “substantial quantities” of greenhouse gases and smog-forming pollution, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Policy Integrity.

“Fossil fuel-powered appliances ubiquitous in residential and commercial buildings collectively emit almost three times more smog-forming nitrogen oxides than the nation’s gas-fired power plants, and almost as much planet-warming carbon dioxide,” IPI says in an Oct. 25 statement announcing a new report that makes the cases for such regulation.

Republican governors across the United States have enacted legislation that will likely fuel the spread of COVID. A new op-ed published by legal expert Richard Revesz examines the governors' failure to properly mitigate the spread of COVID and their misunderstanding of federalism.