Recent Projects

The EPA released its first ever greenhouse gas standards for new power plants after a delay at the beginning of the year. The New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) limit emissions from new plants to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour of electricity produced.

The EPA has again delayed its proposal of New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) targeting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The agency passed a September settlement agreement deadline and has not set a date for the actual release.

Policy Integrity recently launched a wiki aimed at providing a better understanding of how energy sectors are subsidized by the tax code. The wiki will gather the expertise of lawyers, economists, tax professionals, and concerned citizens to catalog tax breaks received by the fossil and renewable energy industries.

The federal regulation of greenhouse gases from coal-powered plants called “New Source Performance Standards” has been delayed several times but is now set to be released in early 2012.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced its final policy on incorporating full fuel cycle analysis. This form of analysis expands on the current way of estimating the energy savings of appliances by including the costs of everything from fuel extraction to distribution and also estimating the greenhouse gas impacts of the machine.

Mayor Bloomberg recently announced that the city will phase out the use of unrefined oil sludge and the most-polluting grades of heating oil, to be completed by 2030. The new rules target the airborne fine particulate matter from two grades of heating oil that when burned by buildings create more than 85% of the city’s heating oil soot emissions. It’s expected that 10,000 buildings will be affected, as the black smoke billowing from smokestacks that the city says is responsible for killing 3,000 residents each year is eliminated.

Today, the city is conducting hearings on a regulation that the Bloomberg administration released last month to address the soot pollution from residual oil.

This afternoon, Policy Integrity legal fellow, Jason Schwartz spoke at the bill signing ceremony for Introduction 194|Text|&Search=194, a New York City Council act that will reduce air pollution.

Policy Integrity legal fellow, Jason Schwartz, testified this afternoon at a hearing on a bill that would restrict the use of the dirtiest fuels used to heat some New York City apartments.