Institute for Policy Integrity

The Economics of the Voluntary Carbon Market Greenhouse gas emissions are an example of a tremendous market failure: climate damages are not reflected in market transactions. Businesses and governments try to correct these negative externalities...

The voluntary carbon market, which arose to address the failure of markets to reflect the cost of #ClimateChange, itself suffers from multiple failures.

In a new report, we identify these failures and examine potential solutions.

policyintegrity.org/publications...

Economists Still Agree on Climate Change | The Regulatory Review Despite the retraction of a recent study, economists still agree that climate change is expensive and dangerous.

Despite the retraction of a recent study, economists still agree that #ClimateChange is expensive and dangerous, and climate action is an urgent necessity, write our Peter Howard and Al McGartland in @theregreview.bsky.social.

Read their full op-ed:

www.theregreview.org/2026/02/23/h...

The major questions doctrine has contributed to substantial confusion in lower courts regarding its application. But the Court’s recent ruling on President Trump’s tariffs has provided some clarity.

Read our Max Sarinsky's new piece on the ruling:

www.yalejreg.com/nc/tallying-...

WEBINAR - Is That Legal?: Rulemaking Trends One Year Into the Trump Administration In this webinar, we will review novel approaches that the Trump Administration has pursued to advance deregulation, along with their potential legal vulnerabilities. This webinar will also examine the...

💻 Webinar tomorrow ⏰

In pursuing widescale deregulation, the Trump Administration has advanced aggressive and unprecedented legal theories.

Tune in for a discussion of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory tactics and their potential legal vulnerabilities.

policyintegrity.org/news/event/w...

The Major Questions Doctrine Can’t Save EPA’s Big Climate Repeal Opinion: The Environmental Protection Agency’s arguments in the recent climate repeal misunderstand the major questions doctrine, ignore Supreme Court precedent, and contradict principles of stare dec...

EPA argues in its repeal of the Endangerment Finding that it lacks legal authority for #climate regulation. But both the major questions doctrine and Supreme Court precedent contradict this argument, write our Dena Adler and Kate Welty on @bloomberglaw.com.

news.bloomberglaw.com/legal-exchan...

Today, EPA finalized its rule repealing 2024 updates to the mercury and air toxics limits for power plants.

"EPA is letting some of the country's dirtiest power plants off the hook for causing neurotoxic and carcinogenic pollution," says our Dena Adler.

policyintegrity.org/files/media/...

Table 2-14 from EPA's RIA on the 2024 MATS RTR repeal, estimating the anticipated effect of the repeal on retail electricity prices. The table shows the repeal is expected to have a 0.0% effect on electricity prices in 2028, 2030, and 2035.

Trump just repealed Biden-era coal plant emissions standards for mercury and other hazardous pollutants, in the name of affordability. In reality, the repeal is expected to have a 0.0% impact on electricity prices. The repeal's cost savings will go to industry, and we will pay with our health.

The Supreme Court just decided President Trump's global #tariffs are unlawful.

Read more about the decision and our work on the major questions doctrine, which was central to the Court's ruling:

policyintegrity.org/files/media/...

WEBINAR - Is That Legal?: Rulemaking Trends One Year Into the Trump Administration In this webinar, we will review novel approaches that the Trump Administration has pursued to advance deregulation, along with their potential legal vulnerabilities. This webinar will also examine the...

The Trump Administration came into office last year promising to rescind many environmental, health, and consumer safeguards. In a webinar next Wednesday, we'll take stock of deregulatory trends that have emerged so far. 🏛️ ↩️

Register for the webinar:

policyintegrity.org/news/event/w...

EPA Ignores Congress’ Intent in Unwinding Greenhouse Gas Rules Opinion: The EPA’s principal justification for the repeal of its finding that greenhouse gases may endanger public health reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the Clean Air Act.

Congress intended for the Clean Air Act to cover pollutants affecting the climate, yet EPA denies this intent in its repeal of the endangerment finding.

Our Richard Revesz explains in @bloomberglaw.com.

news.bloomberglaw.com/legal-exchan...

Amicus Brief in the Fourth Circuit on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 1920 By requiring grid planners to account for all factors driving the need for new transmission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 1920 ensures that grid buildout is based on reality rather than ...

Looking for a guide explaining new planning tools for regional power lines? ⚡

In a new amicus brief, we give a primer on principles of transmission planning modeling and show that FERC Order 1920 doesn't favor certain energy policies over others.

policyintegrity.org/projects/upd...

The Trump Administration's rescission of the endangerment finding is fatally flawed—economically and legally. In other words, the inevitable litigation over the rescission has strong footing.

Policy Integrity has prepared for this litigation over the past year:

policyintegrity.org/files/media/...

WEBINAR - Market-Based Methods in Greenhouse Gas Accounting The methodology for calculating greenhouse gas emissions could be on the cusp of a major change. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is currently considering revisions to its framework for attributing “Scope ...

Next week 💻 ⏰ Join Policy Integrity on February 17 for a webinar about proposed changes to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which is currently considering revisions to its framework for attributing “Scope 2” emissions.

Register for the webinar:

policyintegrity.org/news/event/w...

Seminar graphic with Al McGartland's photo and lecture title: Quality science for quality decisions: The political regulatory cycle and the integrity of benefit cost analysis.

Tomorrow! Join us Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 1 pm ET, for a @hsphniehsctr.bsky.social and @harvardenvhealth.bsky.social seminar with Dr. Al McGartland of NYU's Institute for Policy Integrity @policyintegrity.bsky.social. In-person and virtual! Visit hsph.me/niehs-seminar for more info and registration.

Do Large Language Models Dream of the Administrative Procedure Act?, by Jack Jones & Burçin Ünel - Yale Journal on Regulation Nothing in the APA prohibits agencies from using computational tools to gather, synthesize, or even recommend policy choices—and agencies already often rely on modeling tools to inform regulatory stan...

Does A.I. use count as "reasoned decisionmaking"? 🤖

How federal agencies use A.I. may determine the answer. Our Jack Jones and Burçin Ünel explore this thought experiment in the Yale Journal on Regulation's Notice & Comment blog.

www.yalejreg.com/nc/do-large-...

Lifting the Smog In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued stronger air quality standards for particulate matter that the agency concluded would save thousands of lives every year and yield billions of...

Today, EPA took its latest step in attacking 2024 standards for soot, flouting a deadline to designate which counties are failing to meet them.

In a new issue brief, we explain why these standards save lives and rebut misleading myths.

Check out the brief:

policyintegrity.org/publications...

WEBINAR - Is That Legal?: Rulemaking Trends One Year Into the Trump Administration In this webinar, we will review novel approaches that the Trump Administration has pursued to advance deregulation, along with their potential legal vulnerabilities. This webinar will also examine the...

The Trump Administration came into office last year promising to rescind many environmental, health, and consumer safeguards. In a webinar on February 25, we'll take stock of deregulatory trends that have emerged so far. 🏛️ ↩️

Register for the webinar:

policyintegrity.org/news/event/w...

Under the Hood In 2025, both the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed regulatory changes that would cost consumers more at the pump and increase health damages fr...

The analysis that EPA and DOT provide to back up recent regulatory rollback proposals contains serious flaws. 🚗 🛻

In a new report, we inspect overlooked benefits and costs in the proposals and demonstrate their shortcomings:

policyintegrity.org/publications...

WEBINAR - Market-Based Methods in Greenhouse Gas Accounting The methodology for calculating greenhouse gas emissions could be on the cusp of a major change. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is currently considering revisions to its framework for attributing “Scope ...

Webinar alert 💻 ⏰ The methodology for calculating greenhouse gas #emissions could be on the cusp of a major change.

Join us February 17 for a panel discussion on proposed revisions to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol:

policyintegrity.org/news/event/w...

Evaluating Models of CO2 Transport Governance Large-scale CO2 transport infrastructure is crucial for achieving decarbonization goals, yet its deployment remains slow. This paper maps emerging CO2 transport governance models across two dimensions...

Transporting carbon dioxide remains a big obstacle to scaling up #carbon capture and storage. 🏭

Check out a new report published with @eui-schuman.bsky.social and @fsr-eui.bsky.social on emerging models for governing the nascent CO2 transportation industry.

policyintegrity.org/publications...

Evaluating Models of CO2 Transport Governance Large-scale CO2 transport infrastructure is crucial for achieving decarbonization goals, yet its deployment remains slow. This paper maps emerging CO2 transport governance models across two dimensions...

"The universe of what the Congressional Review Act can reach expanded significantly in 2025," write our Jack Jones and Richard Revesz in @theregreview.bsky.social.

The current Congress's approach threatens stability for agencies and regulated businesses.

www.theregreview.org/2026/02/03/j...

The Trump Administration’s Deregulatory Playbook A deep dive into the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda, Supreme Court influences, and the evolving limits of agency authority.

"In its first year, the second Trump administration moved quickly and aggressively to rescind many environmental, health, and consumer regulations," write our Katherine Welty and Max Sarinsky in @justsecurity.org.

But there are exceptions, they add.

www.justsecurity.org/129588/trump...

WEBINAR - Is That Legal?: Rulemaking Trends One Year Into the Trump Administration In this webinar, we will review novel approaches that the Trump Administration has pursued to advance deregulation, along with their potential legal vulnerabilities. This webinar will also examine the...

The Trump Administration came into office last year promising to rescind many environmental, health, and consumer safeguards. In a webinar on February 25, we'll take stock of deregulatory trends that have emerged so far. 🏛️ ↩️

Register now!

policyintegrity.org/news/event/w...

WEBINAR - Carbon Markets and Credit Equivalence Carbon markets are largely built around efforts to ensure credit integrity and establish fungibility between heterogeneous offset projects on a per-ton basis. But no mechanism can reduce integrity ris...

Tomorrow! 🕚 Join us and expert guests for a discussion about carbon markets and carbon credit equivalence.

Register now:

policyintegrity.org/news/event/c...

WEBINAR - Market-Based Methods in Greenhouse Gas Accounting The methodology for calculating greenhouse gas emissions could be on the cusp of a major change. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is currently considering revisions to its framework for attributing “Scope ...

New webinar alert 💻 ⏰ The methodology for calculating greenhouse gas #emissions could be on the cusp of a major change.

Join us February 17 from 12:00–1:15 p.m. ET for a panel discussion on proposed revisions to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol:

policyintegrity.org/news/event/w...

Drivers of Transmission This issue brief uses an in-house model to examine the effect of certain state clean energy policies in the PJM region, along with the effect of projections of energy demand growth on the need for ele...

State clean energy policies may increase or decrease the need for additional electricity transmission in the PJM region, but growth in peak demand from data centers consistently increases the need for transmission in the region. ⚡

Read more in a new issue brief:

policyintegrity.org/publications...

Opinion | The Trump Administration Now Thinks Clean Air Is Worthless

"The Environmental Protection Agency has established a new way to address the country’s pollution problems: Ignore them," writes our Richard Revesz in @nytopinion.nytimes.com.

The agency recently decided to not assess the health benefits of a pollution standard.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/o...

Webinar: Carbon Markets and Credit Equivalence Carbon markets are largely built around efforts to ensure credit integrity and establish fungibility between heterogeneous offset projects on a per-ton basis. But no mechanism can reduce integrity ris...

Next week 🕚 Carbon Markets and Credit Equivalence Webinar

Join researchers and practitioners for a discussion of novel approaches to assessing equivalence between #carbon offset projects and improving outcomes from carbon #markets.

Register now!

policyintegrity.org/news/event/c...

How companies can lessen legal risk in carbon markets Instead of claiming offset emissions, companies can claim to have counteracted social damages.

Voluntary #carbon markets face a dilemma. 🌍 ☁️ 💭

Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for much longer that carbon offset projects typically are required to remove or reduce carbon emissions.

We discuss potential solutions in a @trellisgroup.bsky.social article.

trellis.net/article/comp...

Missing the Mark EPA has regulated greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act for over 15 years. But early in 2026, EPA is expected to finalize its proposed repeal of the 2009 scientific find...

In a new issue brief, we explain the flaws in EPA's argument that the major questions doctrine precludes regulation of motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

EPA is expected to use this argument to finalize a rule scrapping those regulations.🚘

policyintegrity.org/publications...