Recent Projects

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is proposing to gather additional data on pipeline accidents and fires, including data on injuries, property damage, and loss of natural gas. We submitted comments supporting PHMSA’s efforts to better assess the social cost of accidents and encouraging the agency to estimate greenhouse gas emissions that result from pipeline fires.

The Institute for Policy Integrity is tracking altered enforcement of environmental laws by federal and state agencies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In connection with the crisis, several agencies have issued waivers or announced plans to stop enforcing key environmental laws and regulations. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) environmental assessment estimates that the Lamar County Expansion Project would result in 3.87 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from downstream emissions. We submitted comments suggesting that FERC monetize climate impacts using social cost of carbon estimates. The proposed natural gas project would result in over $200 million in annual climate costs.  

Coal combustion residuals, commonly known as coal ash, are the residual substances that remain after burning coal. They contain several chemicals that are toxic to human health, including arsenic, boron, lead, and mercury. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule that amends the regulatory framework for the disposal of coal ash. We submitted comments in January detailing how EPA fails to analyze the forgone benefits of the regulatory changes, which extend deadlines and eligibility for facilities that lack appropriate disposal capacity. We also submitted comments in April focusing on the second part of EPA's proposal, which fails to assess the forgone benefits of allowing facilities to seek approval for alternative basin liners. 

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for managing emissions on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Utah proposes control requirements for new, modified, and existing oil and natural gas sources. Despite forecasting that the requirements would lead to a substantial decrease in methane emissions, EPA severely underestimates resulting benefits through the use of an “interim” social cost of methane metric that disregards the best peer-reviewed science. We submitted joint comments detailing EPA’s failure to adequately monetize and evaluate the benefits of the FIP.

Our resource compiles the greenhouse gas emissions and resulting damages from liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals.

The Acadiana and Louisiana XPress projects could result in the emission of 31.9 million tons of downstream emissions in carbon-dioxide equivalence per year from the combusion of natural gas. We submitted comments encouraging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to provide a more complete analysis of project emissions and weigh their climate impacts using the social cost of carbon. 

The FM100 and Leidy South projects in Pennsylvania could result in the emission of 17.6 million tons of downstream emissions in carbon-dioxide equivalence per year from the combusion of natural gas. We submitted comments encouraging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to provide a more complete analysis of project emissions and weigh its climate impacts using the social cost of carbon. 

The Putnam Expansion Project involves the construction and installation of natural gas infrastructure that will result in downstream emissions of approximately 3.26 million metric tons carbon dioxide-equivalent each year. Our comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) focus on its environmental assessment of the project, which provides unclear and inadequate analysis of the emissions and their climate impacts. We urge FERC to monetize climate damages by using social cost of greenhouse gas metrics.