Recent Projects

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.

For the last year, New York City has been working to develop potential regulation of the dirtiest heating oils used in residential and commercial boilers. Policy Integrity has been in close contact with city officials and interested advocacy groups as the rule is being developed to help quantify the potential health benefits and shape a rational regulatory response.

New York State released its final Energy Plan today. Few changes were made from the revised draft version from the draft version. Policy Integrity had proposed distributing tradable energy vouchers to businesses instead of pure electricity subsidies in order to incentivize them to reduce their electricity usage—at no extra cost to taxpayers.

Policy Integrity expanded on our initial comments on the New York State Energy Plan. In this version, more detail is offered on how the state could build efficiency incentives into its economic development programs.

New York State subsidizes the electricity bills for some companies as a way of encouraging them to keep their business here.

Economists know that when the cost of basic goods like energy increase, quality of life of decreases most for people with lower incomes. This is an important issue that government agencies should consider when estimating the effects of regulations.