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OMB responds to Policy Integrity 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.
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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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Comments in support of net neutrality rule
Policy Integrity submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in support of a proposed rule that would prevent Internet-service providers from price discrimination. The comments argue that the presence of positive externalities, including the public good nature of information and network externalities, justify the regulation.
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Free To Invest
The Economic Benefits of Preserving Net Neutrality
It is hard to imagine a future where the value of the Web takes a downward spiral: where less content is created, online access is less useful, and fewer people log on. In Free to Invest, the Institute for Policy Integrity warns of negative economic consequences if net neutrality is weakened. The report arrived at five main findings that describe the trade-offs of revoking net neutrality.
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NY State Energy Plan released
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.
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Comments on proposed vehicle emission and fuel-economy standards
Policy Integrity submitted two sets of comments regarding the federal government’s proposed regulations to control the emissions and fuel economy standards of America’s fleet of light-duty vehicles (cars, SUV’s and pick-ups but not larger trucks).
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Fact sheet on cap-and-refund costs
A cap-and-refund approach to climate change will require that all households be transferred their portion of the proceeds from the auction of carbon allowances in a timely and cost effective manner. Policy Integrity conducted analysis of the refund can be administered and released a fact sheet finding that the cost of getting the refund to American individuals and families will be relatively modest.
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Economists and Climate Change
Consensus and Open Questions
Economists and Climate Change: Consensus and Open Questions describes and analyzes the results of a survey sent to 289 economic experts on climate change. Over 84% of the respondents to the poll said that the effects of global warming will create significant risks to important sectors of the United States and global economies.
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Economist survey on the costs of climate change
In response to widespread concern about the economic effects of climate change legislation, Policy Integrity conducted a survey to determine the views of top economists about the wisdom of pursuing greenhouse gas limits. Questionnaires were circulated to every economist who had published a climate change related article in a top-20 economics journal over the past 10 years.