Recent Projects

The EPA’s economic analysis of the climate bill in the Senate came out today and unfortunately reveals only half the picture. It looks only at the costs that the bill would impose (described as modest) but does not at all address the benefits.

Policy Integrity submitted comments today on proposed changes to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) Principles and Standards for Water and Land Related Resources Implementation Studies. The proposal was released on December 9, 2009 and today marks the deadline for comments.

Each year, the Office of Management and Budget reports to Congress on the benefits and costs of federal regulations. Policy Integrity’s faculty advisor, Dean Richard Revesz and executive director, Michael Livermore were asked to serve as peer reviewers of the 2009 report, released today.

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.

In the summer of 2009, the Department of Energy released a regulation to update electricity efficiency standards for vending machines. Though the rule itself was somewhat routine, it contained information that could have major effects on environmental regulation in the future.

In November 2008, the Bush Administration finalized a regulation allowing truck drivers to spend more hours behind the wheel. To counter the deregulation, advocacy groups including Public Citizen filed suit against the Federal Motor Carrier and Safety Administration (part of the Department of Transportation) in March 2009.

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.