Recent Projects

Policy Integrity, along with Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Union of Concerned Scientists, submitted comments on the social cost of carbon (SCC) within a rule proposed by the Department of Energy regarding energy conservation for commercial refrigeration equipment. The SCC calculation is an estimate of the damage caused by each ton of carbon emissions and used in the cost-benefit analyses of regulations with greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Policy Integrity, along with the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, submitted comments on the social cost of carbon. The calculation—an estimate of the damage caused by each ton of carbon emissions—was used in a rule proposed by the Department of Energy regarding energy conservation from metal halide lamp fixtures. The joint comments show that according to cutting-edge economic research, the estimate used by the government may be too low.

The President’s Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) has implemented several changes to the Proposed National Objectives, Principles and Standards for Water and Related Resources Implementation Studies that are consistent with recommendations Policy Integrity made in comments on the 2009 draft.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, citing Richard Revesz’s work with co-author Jonathan Nash on “grandfathering” power plants, recently reversed a district court order and sided with the EPA in its case against DTE Energy Corp. The court ruled that the Clean Air Act grants the EPA the power to review projections of future emissions resulting from a facility modification without having to wait for data from the completed project.

Policy Integrity submitted comments to the Chugach National Forest advocating for the use of cost-benefit analysis in the revision of the forest’s Resource Management Plan. The US Forest Service updated its rule last year on how individual forests should develop their management plans, eliminating an explicit requirement to study the net present value of management alternatives. The forests, though, were left with some discretion, which we think forests like Chugach should use to incorporate cost-benefit analysis into their planning.

Policy Integrity is winding down its energy tax breaks wiki after over a year of compiling the expertise of lawyers, economists, tax professionals, and concerned citizens to catalog tax breaks received by the fossil and renewable energy industries.

Today we submitted a notice of intent to sue EPA for failing to take certain actions to guard against climate change. In 2009, we asked the EPA to limit the carbon emissions that come from mobile sources like cars, boats and planes. The agency did not respond, as it is legally required, so we will now take the next step in notifying them of our intention to sue.