Recent Projects

On April 30, CEQ revised its implementing regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act that undergird how federal agencies conduct environmental review of proposed projects. Consistent with federal caselaw, CEQ’s regulations emphasize the need to consider climate change and environmental justice impacts in environmental review, among other key revisions. These revisions are also consistent with suggestions that Policy Integrity has offered through our scholarship, reports, and comments on ensuring careful consideration of climate change and environmental justice in federal permitting. In addition, CEQ implemented several of Policy Integrity’s suggestions to enhance its cost-benefit analysis for this rulemaking.

On April 25, 2024, the Department of Energy (DOE) released its final rule under 16 U.S.C. § 824p(h) to expedite the federal authorization of transmission projects. We commented in support of the proposal, including DOE's proposed requirement that project proponents describe how the transmission project would affect power-system greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the final rule, DOE retained the requirement to describe power-system GHG impacts and, in response to our recommendation, clarified that the ambiguous language in the proposal does require project proponents to estimate non-power-system GHG emissions and power-system emissions of local air pollutants. 

On April 24, 2024, DOT issued a final rule on airline ticket refunds which, among other things, will require airlines to offer refunds when a passenger’s itinerary is significantly changed or delayed, and will require that passengers be given a ticket voucher if a serious communicative disease prevents them from flying. We submitted comments to DOT in November 2022 explaining that, in our view, DOT’s benefit-cost analysis was underestimating the benefits of these policies. DOT’s finalized analysis discusses our comments extensively, and implements many of our suggestions.

In February 2024, EPA finalized amendments to its Risk Management Program (RMP), under Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act, to better protect vulnerable communities from chemical disasters that release toxic air pollution. In line with Policy Integrity’s recommendations, the final rule has been strengthened relative to the proposal and includes considerably more attention to the issues of underreporting, unquantified benefits, and the risks of catastrophic incidents. EPA has further improved the final rule to include consideration of climate change-related hazards in line with Policy Integrity’s recommendation to cover climate change-exacerbated hazards in addition to climate change-caused hazards. This will be increasingly important as the risks and magnitude of future chemical incident damages will likely only grow as climate change exacerbates severe weather that can spur power outages and chemical disasters.

On December 22nd, the Treasury Department issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) 45V tax credit for clean hydrogen production. The proposal would establish rules for how electrolyzers can demonstrate compliance with the IRA’s lifecycle greenhouse gas limits—and thus demonstrate their eligibility for the tax credit. The proposed rule includes robust requirements to avoid greenhouse gas emissions: new clean power, annual matching with a transition to hourly matching in 2028, and contracting within the same regional grid. The approach in this proposal aligns with many of the recommendations the Institute for Policy Integrity made in comments to the Treasury Department. 

On December 2nd, EPA released a new methane regulation that includes final updated values for the social cost of greenhouse gas metrics. The updated metrics align with many of the recommendations Policy Integrity made in our comments on the draft values, and our scholarship and analysis were cited heavily in the associated federal documentation.

On November 9th, the White House finalized its revision of Circular A-4, the primary guidance on how federal agencies should assess the costs and benefits of regulations. This document plays a critical role in federal policymaking, and it had not been updated in two decades. The new guidance represents a major improvement over current practice and incorporates numerous changes that Policy Integrity has long recommended.

In October 2023, the Michigan Public Service Commission issued an order in the benefit cost analysis (BCA) matter for which we filed comments in June. The order adopts several of our recommendations, and specifically cites us for several of them.

In October 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a proposed rule that bans the use of “junk fees” in transactions including hotel reservations, vehicle rentals, and event ticket purchases. The proposed rule references Policy Integrity and our work more than a dozen times, including both our 2021 petition for rulemaking and our 2023 comment letter supporting the FTC’s authority to issue this regulation.

This month, EPA restored the legal foundation for regulating emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from coal- and oil-fired power plants under section 112 of the Clean Air Act. Policy Integrity has long recommended that EPA adopt such an approach that considers unquantified and ancillary effects, as is consistent with the best economic practices and the law, including through our comments on the 2022 proposed rule and an amicus brief opposing the 2020 finding.