Recent Projects

Boiler MACT regulations will take harmful soot out of the air as well as mercury and other heavy metals. It will have a significant positive effect on respiratory and cardiovascular health. But EPA is currently reconsidering some of the rule it deems shaky.

Policy Integrity submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging updates to its New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) program standards for nitrogen oxide (NOx ) and nitric acid plants, which can emit dangerous air pollutants that can cause illness and alter the climate. Though a statute requires the EPA to review and revise related regulations every eight years, the rules governing these plants have not been updated in four decades.

Policy Integrity submitted comments to the EPA on its proposed rules for cooling water intake structures, required under the Clean Water Act. These rules would affect practices at power plants that mean death for thousands of fish boiled or pinned by screens and intake pipes.

The EPA released proposed regulations earlier this year in May to curb hazardous air pollutants, including mercury, from electric utility steam generating units (EGUs). Policy Integrity submitted comments today to the EPA on improving the efficiency of these rules, known as Utility MACT and Utility NSPS. They are both expected to be finalized later this year.

Back in January, President Obama signed Executive Order 13,563 requesting that agencies develop and submit preliminary plans to periodically review existing significant regulations.

Policy Integrity submitted comments to EPA in support of the agency’s proposed findings that motor vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases contribute to dangerous air pollution. The comments also highlight some important issues for the agency to consider as it moves forward and call EPA’s attention to some legal obligations that will not be satisfied by the proposed endangerment findings alone.