Policy Integrity in the News

Trump Administration Relied on Flawed Logic To Justify Scrapping Vehicle Emission Rules, Study Says

2026-08-27T14:52:00+00:00

“They pretty effectively proved that the rollback is really based on several fundamental flaws, and any one of these mistakes alone is enough to change the sign of the cost-benefit analysis and show that this is a bad deal, not just for the environment, but a bad deal for drivers,” said Jason Schwartz, regulatory policy director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law.

Source: AP

Trump Move To Weaken Air Rules Limits Tool To Fight Data Centers

2026-08-26T13:48:00+00:00

The EPA’s January rule centers around another important distinction: mobile versus stationary sources.

If the agency classifies gas combustion turbines as mobile sources, it could exempt those units from “longstanding pollution limits and the stationary source permitting regime,” said Dena Adler, an attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity. That would have “serious pollution ramifications, especially if data centers have a turbine construction boom,” she said.

Source: Bloomberg Law

Dear (Juris)Prudence: How Can Congress Stop Trump From Sabotaging the Next Democratic President?

2026-08-24T19:02:00+00:00

Nicholas Bednar and Max Sarinsky came up with a few solutions that Congress could legislate without violating Slaughter.

Source: Slate

Institute for Policy Integrity Says Flood of Detailed Comments Justifies AI Use for Rulemakings

2026-08-12T19:23:00+00:00

Legal scholars at the Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI) are concluding that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is justified to help agencies review and sort rulemaking comments, in part due to a recent Supreme Court ruling against EPA that observers say is driving a spike in more-detailed comments to help preserve legal challenges to the rules.

Source: Inside EPA

EPA Faces Looming Deadline To Update Court on Framework Rule’s Status

2026-08-12T19:21:00+00:00

Most recently, New York University law school’s Institute for Policy Integrity published an issue brief titled, “Hidden Hazard” which outlines its concerns about the proposed changes to the framework rule.

Source: Inside EPA

Opinion — Trump’s EPA Found a Sneaky New Way To Make Our Air More Polluted

2026-08-02T14:31:00+00:00

Recently, millions of Americans have faced orange skies and air-quality alerts. The struggles many people had with the smoke are a sad reminder of the importance air quality has for our health. Yet the Trump administration has done everything in its power to make our air less clean. Now it is adopting new, stealthier strategies to weaken clean-air standards.

Source: Slate

Legal Scholars Warn EPA’s Formaldehyde Risk Methods ‘Bias’ Future Rule

2026-07-29T14:26:00+00:00

“EPA’s recent proposed updates to its [Toxic Substances Control Act] risk evaluation for formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, demonstrate how distortions in a risk evaluation can ultimately undermine public protections — biasing the agency’s future risk management decisions by affecting what risks EPA must address and warping EPA’s assessment of the costs and benefits of regulating a chemical,” Kate Welty and Martha Roberts, scholars at New York University Law School’s Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI), write in their recent issue brief, Hidden Hazards.

Source: Inside EPA

Supreme Court Tees up New Test of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Political Independence

2026-07-28T14:59:00+00:00

“The Slaughter opinion is going to generate chaos,” said Jennifer Danis, federal energy policy director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University.

In the ruling, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority found that commissioners at agencies exerting executive powers are subject to removal at will by the president — but did not clearly define what it means for an agency to be predominantly exercising executive authority, she said.

Source: E&E News

Carbon Capture Explained: How European Union Member States Are Funding and Rolling Out the Technology to Clean Up Europe’s Fossil Fuel Industry

2026-07-28T14:45:00+00:00

Carbon capture and storage underpins the European Union’s strategy to decarbonize industries such as cement, steel, and chemicals. It involves capturing carbon dioxide from industrial facilities, transporting it by pipeline or shipping, and storing it permanently in geological formations.

Source: The Conversation

The Supreme Court Gave Trump a New Way to Break the Government

2026-07-13T13:27:00+00:00

As Max Sarinsky recently noted in Slate, reform of multimember commissions may be possible if Democrats take the Senate in this year’s midterms, creating conditions for a compromise.

Source: Slate

Todd Blanche Has Already Flunked His Confirmation Hearing

2026-07-09T17:35:00+00:00

Friend of Slate Max Sarinsky, the legal director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, argues that when a presidency changes hands, Congress will ultimately hold the power to confirm the president’s nominees.

Source: Slate

Trump Push To Slash Regulatory Red Tape Opens a Crucial Chapter

2026-07-09T13:45:00+00:00

Roughly two-thirds of the major rules issued during President Donald Trump’s first term that were challenged were either fully or partially struck down by the courts, according to New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity.

Source: Bloomberg Law

Department of Energy Advances ‘Sunset’ Proposal Despite Withdrawing Direct Final Rule

2026-07-08T14:15:00+00:00

The “larger problems” with [the Department of Energy’s] sunset initiative is that it “bypasses both meaningful public input and true consideration of whether the sunsets comport with statutory mandates or improve overall public welfare,” writes the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University’s School of Law in June 29 comments on the May direct final rule.

Source: Inside EPA

Opinion — The Supreme Court Just Made It Easier for Presidents To Sabotage Their Successors

2026-07-07T14:07:00+00:00

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution grants the president broad power to remove the heads of “independent” federal agencies. Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion for the 6–3 majority largely framed the decision, Trump v. Slaughter, as tightening presidential control over agencies that safeguard key aspects of the national economy.

Source: Slate

Trump Plans Rollbacks as Rules Agenda Piles High

2026-07-07T13:50:00+00:00

Richard Revesz, who led [the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs] during the Biden administration, said Trump’s rulemaking agenda for EPA would continue “the deregulatory rampage” prevalent throughout his second term.

“The repeals will cause enormous damage to the health of the American people — including a large number of additional premature deaths, severe asthma attacks, and hospitalizations — for comparatively small cost savings to the regulated community,” Revesz said.

Source: E&E News

Opinion — The Energy Department Is Trying To Rewrite the Federal Power Act

2026-07-02T13:48:00+00:00

For the past year, the U.S. Department of Energy has ordered coal plants across the country to continue operating past their scheduled retirement dates. The Energy Department claims that an “emergency” shortage of electricity generation makes these orders necessary. But that conclusion disregards the findings reached by state electricity regulators and regional grid operators, which are responsible for ensuring that there is enough energy supply to meet demand. The Energy Department’s orders do not just elbow into state decisionmaking; they flip the Federal Power Act’s 100-year-old balance of authority on its head, making the Department the sole final arbiter in matters of electricity generation.

Source: The Regulatory Review

Opinion — U.S. Energy Regulator Can’t Cast Aside Cumulative Impacts Analysis

2026-07-01T13:55:00+00:00

Infrastructure that causes pollution, such as gas installations, can be more or less harmful depending on its location and who’s affected. Different pollutants can combine to become more harmful than the sum of each individual pollutant’s harms, and communities may also have different underlying susceptibilities. So it’s critical that federal agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, analyze cumulative impacts when siting, permitting, or authorizing new sources of pollution.

Source: Bloomberg Law

Energy Regulator Staves off Critique in New Data Center Orders

2026-06-23T15:45:00+00:00

“The advantage is that each RTO will need to respond specifically with facts and data from their region—there will be a chance for the states to weigh in if they have any lingering concerns,” said Jennifer Danis, federal energy policy director at the Institute for Policy Integrity, referring to regional transmission organizations.

“It will give a much more robust and detailed administrative record, so I think it really reduces future litigation entry points,” she said.

Source: Bloomberg Law

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Slashes Cumulative National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Reviews

2026-06-22T14:26:00+00:00

Jennifer Danis, Federal Energy Policy Director at the Institute for Policy Integrity, said she did not take FERC's order to mean the commission is no longer obligated to consider issues specific to a particular project's siting.

Source: E&E News

Institute for Policy Integrity Attacks EPA’s Economic Review, Social Cost of Carbon Omission in Methane Rule Delay

2026-06-15T15:48:00+00:00

“EPA’s limited analysis of the final rule’s climate and health effects violates the Administrative Procedure Act’s [APA] standards of reasonable decisionmaking,” says a June 10 proposed amicus brief from New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI).

Source: Inside EPA