May 1, 2014
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Supreme Court Decides Cross-State Case
On April 29, the Supreme Court upheld EPA’s “good neighbor” regulation, which limits the amount of pollution that upwind states can send downwind. The Court’s opinion is consistent with the position of Policy Integrity’s amicus brief, and our director, Richard Revesz, was cited in the first paragraph of Justice Ginsburg’s opinion. This rule will avoid tens of thousands of premature deaths each year. Policy Integrity’s amicus brief was mentioned in an blog post in Media Matters and other outlets.
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EPA’s Mercury and Toxic Standards Upheld
Policy Integrity also welcomed the April 15 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to uphold EPA’s Mercury and Toxic Standards. Policy Integrity filed an amicus brief in that case. Together with the Cross-State rule and a rule limiting the greenhouse gas emissions of existing power plants that is likely to be proposed in early June, the Mercury and Toxic Standards rule will play an important role in forcing the retirement of old and dirty coal-fired power plants.
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In the News: Michael Livermore on the social cost of carbon
On April 8, E&ETV’s OnPoint interviewed Michael Livermore, Policy Integrity’s senior advisor, on the social cost of carbon. Based on an article he recently published with Richard Revesz, Nobel Prize winner, Kenneth Arrow, and others, in the prestigious journal, Nature, Livermore explained that the central estimate of $37 excludes many damages, “including many of the most important potential damages, for example, risks of political instability or risks of reductions in long-term economic growth.”
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On the Docket: Comments to EPA on Regulating New Power Plants
Power plants are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. On May 9, Policy Integrity will submit comments on EPA’s proposed performance standards for carbon emissions that come from new power plants. We will also be publishing a comprehensive policy brief in May on the carbon pollution guidelines for aging power plants—ahead of the guidelines that EPA is expected to propose in June.
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In the Spotlight: Stephanie Tatham
Stephanie Tatham is an Attorney Advisor at the Administrative Conference of the United States. Previously, she worked in private practice and as a fellow at the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago, Illinois. “My work as a Research Associate for Policy Integrity helped me to understand that effective administrative advocacy can and should take many forms, from independent economic analysis to comments on agency rulemaking proposals to petitions for judicial review. My experience paved the way for my current practice, conducting applied inter-agency research with the aim of improving judicial review of federal agency decisionmaking.”