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Comments to EPA on Proposed Cooling Rules
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.
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Petition to BOEMRE on Option Value
This morning, Policy Integrity petitioned the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) to reconsider its leasing policies, which may encourage over-drilling. The topic is the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act’s (OCSLA) requirement of the Secretary of the Interior to develop five-year schedules that specify the timing for offshore leasing activity.
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The BP Gulf Coast Oil Spill, Option Value and the Offshore Drilling Debate
One year after crude oil began gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, little action has been taken to prevent a similar disaster. A report authored by Gaia Larsen and Michael A. Livermore finds that overly simplistic economic analysis by the government may have helped lead to the accident.
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Comments to Agencies on Retrospective Review
In addition to submissions to the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, Policy Integrity also sent our recommendations on developing policies for conducting retrospective reviews to fourteen additional agencies this week, including the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the State Department.
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Residual Risks
The Unseen Costs of Using Dirty Oil in New York City Boilers
In about 9,000 big apartment and commercial buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, boilers burn a dirty fuel to heat their units. “Residual Risks” analyses the health, environmental, and economic benefits of switching away from this dirty fuel to cleaner alternatives like natural gas.
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Research in support of heating oil regulations
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.
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Changes to EPA’s Cost-Benefit Guidelines
EPA has been quietly working on some serious changes to the guidelines it uses to conduct cost-benefit analysis. Tweaks to the powerful but low-profile Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses could have major impacts on the environment. The Guidelines is little known outside of the agency, but is used in the design of every major environmental regulation.
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Policy Integrity submits second round of offshore drilling comments
Before leaving office in early 2009, the Bush Administration released a draft offshore drilling plan that is being taken up by the Obama Administration.
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Comments against draft oil drilling plan
Within weeks of Congress allowing longstanding offshore drilling bans to lapse, oil prices took a nose dive, which quieted the calls to “drill here, drill now.” However, before leaving office, the Bush Administration released a draft drilling plan that is being taken up by the Obama Administration.
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Letter to the EPA re: easing of restrictions on mountaintop coal mining
As part of a raft of midnight regulations, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency worked together to finalize regulations that ease restrictions on mountaintop coal mining—in particular how and when mining operations can deposit waste, rocks, and soil in or near streams.
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