Recent Projects

Along with seven partners, we submitted a letter to the Department of the Treasury about the best methodology for determining lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of hydrogen production when calculating the applicable amount of the 45V production tax credit (PTC). The letter had two primary purposes: (1) if local hourly energy matching is adopted as part of 45VPTC implementation, to highlight the critical importance of defining “local” in such a way that avoids increasing carbon emissions, and (2) to advocate for carbon matching as a more cost-effective and scalable alternative compliance pathway that also solves the problem that local hourly energy matching addresses.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency responsible for regulating interstate energy infrastructure and markets, is seeking to better incorporate environmental justice into its decision-making. On March 29th, 2023, FERC held its first-ever Environmental Justice Roundtable where Policy Integrity’s Environmental Justice Director, Al Huang, testified and provided suggestions on how the Commission can identify, avoid, and minimize adverse impacts on environmental justice communities. We submitted additional comments to FERC on these issues, as well as on FERC's legal authority to incorporate environmental justice into its permitting decisions.

Following the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proposed implementing regulations for its authority to site transmission projects that have been rejected or not acted upon by states. We filed comments advising FERC that, to make these determinations and satisfy FERC's obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Commission must consider how proposed transmission projects would affect emissions from power plants. Our comments further recommend improvements to the proposed rule's environmental justice provisions, which also relate to FERC's obligation to ensure that proposed projects are consistent with the public interest.

We filed an amicus brief in a Ninth Circuit loan settlement case in support of neither party to address the proper application of the major questions doctrine. Our brief takes no position on whether the major questions doctrine ultimately applies to the case, nor does it take a position on how the Ninth Circuit should ultimately decide the case. It does explain that, although the Supreme Court’s major questions precedents often reference the economic significance of an agency’s action, none of the Supreme Court’s precedents, including West Virginia, turns on this factor.

In March 2023, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a Request for Information on Chronic Hazards Associated with Gas Ranges and Proposed Solutions. We submitted comments which highlighted the major findings from our report. We explained how the CPSC could regulate gas ranges and recommened possible futher actions.

We submitted comment letters to the Department of Energy (DOE) on its proposed rules to strengthen energy conservation standards, respectively, for consumer conventional cooking products and external power supplies. Our comments applaud the agency for appropriately applying the social cost of greenhouse gases to estimate the climate benefits of the proposed standards. We also suggest that DOE apply additional analysis to each rule using draft updated climate-damage valuations that the Environmental Protection Agency released in November 2022.

We submitted recommendations to the New York Public Service Commission regarding New York’s 6 GW Energy Storage Roadmap: Policy Options for Continued Growth in Energy Storage, a document that analyzes the need to increase New York’s storage target to 6 GW and the barriers to storage deployment, and provides policy recommendations to help the state achieve 6GW of storage deployment by 2030.

As part of a coalition led by WE ACT for Environmental Justice, the Policy Integrity will help support a newly formed Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center.