Recent Projects

EPA finalized a rule updating the MATS (mercury and air toxics) limits for certain fossil-fuel-fired power plants in May 2024. These limits were issued pursuant to Section 112(d)(6) of the Clean Air Act, which gives EPA authority to update regulations based on improvements in processes and control technologies. Policy Integrity submitted an amicus brief in merits litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit) in which we responded to Petitioners’ false assertions that the Rule has no public health benefits and EPA improperly considered the costs and benefits of the Rule.

In May 2023, the NYPSC initiated a process regarding the CLCPA's Zero Emissions Target, and the early phases of that process have focused on interpreting the 2040 goal, which is fraught with ambiguity. To date, this process has included two requests for public comment as well as a Department of Public Service technical conference. Policy Integrity has made comments throughout, and hosted a conference on state-level pathways to zero-emissions electric grids, focusing in significant part on this statutory requirement. On November 4, DPS Staff filed a document proposing definitions of key terms that aligns with Policy Integrity's recommendations and approach in key respects.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program, which coordinates federal research and investments in understanding and responding to the forces shaping the global environment, engaged in a public consultation process on the outline for the U.S.’s first National Nature Assessment. Policy Integrity suggested changes to the outline in general and provided specific comments on some individual chapters, as requested. 

The National Environmental Policy Act requires agencies to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of their decisions, prior to acting. In this case, the Surface Transportation Board, after conducting an environmental review, permitted a proposed railway that would transport oil in Utah’s Uinta Basin. The D.C. Circuit found that the Board’s environmental analysis failed to properly consider the indirect effects of the railway, including increased drilling and pollution impacts in the Gulf Coast, due to an influx of crude oil and increased refinery operations. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in June 2024 on the question “whether the National Environmental Policy Act requires an agency to study environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of the action over which the agency has regulatory authority.” We argue the Court should affirm the D.C. Circuit’s ruling and interpret NEPA–in line with longstanding precedent–to require agencies to consider reasonably foreseeable effects. 

PJM Interconnection, which operates and plans the transmission grid in the mid-Atlantic region, has begun a stakeholder process on its implementation of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order No. 1920, including scenario development. Under Order No. 1920, one mandatory input into this process is policy-driven retirements of generation resources. PJM requested feedback on how it should forecast policy-driven retirements. Policy Integrity's comments explained that PJM should not rely exclusively on generation owners' self-reports of their intentions to retire or continue operating their units, because generation owners face incentives to make strategic but erroneous reports to benefit other generation assets in their portfolios. Instead, Policy Integrity recommended a specific three-step approach. 

EPA finalized greenhouse gas emission limits for existing coal-fired and new natural gas-fired power plants in May 2024. These limits were issued under authority from Section 111 of the Clean Air Act. Policy Integrity submitted an amicus brief in merits litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, addressing the relationship between regulation of new and existing sources under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act and the applicability of this Court’s past decisions reviewing EPA’s discretion on technical findings under Section 111.

Policy Integrity submitted an amicus brief in support of the Department of the Interior and BOEM's 2024-2029 five-year leasing plan for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) resources, raising three main points. First, we review how the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act's (OCSLA) legislative history supports Interior's consideration of downstream effects when valuing OCS oil and gas resources. Second, Policy Integrity explained how Interior's decades-long regulatory practice in creating five-year leasing plans included consideration of downstream environmental effects in various ways, like assessing the relative environmental impacts of using different energy sources. Third, Policy Integrity explained why standard valuation practices support Interior's consideration of downstream public costs from OCS resource consumption alongside downstream private benefits from that same consumption.

The Institute for Policy Integrity submitted comments in the New York Public Service Commission’s Proceeding on Motion of the Commission in Regard to Gas Planning Procedures, responding to a notice posing various questions about non-pipeline alternatives (NPAs). Our comments focused on how NPAs can be compared fairly to conventional infrastructure alternatives.

EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) seeks comments on its review report of the EPA’s Draft Revised Environmental Justice Technical Guidance (EJTG), which reviews the methods and procedures described in EPA’s Draft Revised EJTG for evaluating environmental justice concerns in regulatory actions. Policy Integrity submitted comments making four key recommendations that the SAB can use to advise EPA.