Recent Projects

In August 2021, DOE proposed to return to holding less-efficient gas furnaces to the same standard as other gas furnaces. We filed comments supporting the proposal, while cautioning DOE against making unnecessary statements that might hinder its ability in the future to set standards that would encourage consumers to switch from gas-fired appliances to electric appliances.

We submitted comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) notice of proposed rulemaking, Revised 2023 and Later Model Year Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards. Our comment urged EPA to: select the regulatory alternative that will maximize net social welfare and promote distributional justice; rely on legislative and regulatory history to help justify its aproach to lead time; and improve its modeling to more fully capture benefits of stronger standards.

We also submitted joint comments with a coalition of other environmental groups on EPA's use of the social cost of carbon (SCC) in its proposed regulation, recommending that the agency expand its justification its discount rates and inclusion of global damages in the SCC, and affirm that the SCC is a lower bound of projected climate impacts.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") sets corporate average fuel economy ("CAFE") standards for light-duty vehicles, and penalizes automobile manufacturers who fail to meet applicable standards. In January 2021, NHTSA issued an Interim Final Rule repealing the inflation-adjusted penalty increase for Model Years 2019-2021, which we commented was untimely and disregarded critical environmental harms. 

In August 2021, NHTSA proposed to rescind the Interim Final Rule. We filed comments supporting the proposal for complying with inflation-adjustment obligations, driving fuel savings, and reducing pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have expressed the intention to repeal the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which removed critical federal protections on many waterways and has been vacated by a federal court for violating the Clean Water Act. In comments filed to the agencies, we welcome the decision to replace the rule but encourage strong justification for reversing course and point to flaws in the economic analysis for the earlier rule that can support the case for replacing it.

We previously commented on the rule and its flawed economic justification, published a report on its concealed costs, and filed amicus briefs in court cases that challenged it.

We filed a brief in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York supporting a challenge to the Department of Education’s replacement for a 2016 regulation known as the Borrower Defense Rule. The replacement rule makes it much harder for student borrowers who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges to get their loans discharged. We later filed a brief in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals after SDNY upheld the rule.

Drip pricing is a strategy used by some sellers to lure in consumers by advertising deceptively low prices, only to reveal hidden mandatory fees after the consumer is on the verge of completing a transaction. We submitted a petition to the Federal Trade Commission formally calling for a new rule banning the use of drip pricing.

We submitted comments to the New York Public Service Commission to voice our support for a petition concerning the impacts of climate change on utility infrastructure. Our comments emphasize that it is imperative for public utilities to identify and assess the risks that climate change poses to their assets and operations.

Climate change presents grave risk across the U.S. economy, including to corporations, their investors, the markets in which they operate, and the American public at large. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently requested public input on climate change disclosures, posing several questions related to the development of new disclosure regulations and the enforcement of existing regulations. We worked with several partners to submit comments to the SEC, providing 15 major recommendations.