From Climate Extra

DOJ Asks Court To Dismiss California’s Suit Over CRA Waiver Repeals

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is asking a court to dismiss a suit by a California-led state coalition that claims EPA and other federal officials wrongly used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to rescind waivers for several California vehicle pollution programs, asserting the suit is precluded in part because of a bar on judicial review in the CRA statute. “This lawsuit asks this Court to invalidate three federal statutes that received majority votes in both Houses of Congress, and that...

EPA GHG Reporting Rollback Could Drive Multiple State, Other Programs

EPA’s proposal to virtually eliminate its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) is sparking warnings that such a step would create new pressures for multiple differing GHG reporting requirements, including at the state level, alongside new difficulties in asserting environmental performance in domestic or foreign markets. Those fears supplement prior concerns that ending EPA’s program would complicate industry’s ability to claim tax credits for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and clean hydrogen production. EPA’s proposal is also sparking claims by the...

Democratic States Warn EPA’s GHG Risk Plan Flouts High Court Precedent

A coalition of Democratic cities and states led by Massachusetts and California is blasting EPA’s proposed recission of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, arguing EPA’s justification is foreclosed by the Supreme Court, disregards “overwhelming” science and is “misguided” in seeking input on ways to ensure continued preemption of state vehicle GHG rules. The 225-page arguments are spelled out in Sept. 22 comments filed in response to EPA’s proposal to withdraw its 2009 endangerment finding that forms the basis for the...

State Coalition Charges EPA Lacks Authority To Scrap Vehicle GHG Limits

A California-led coalition of Democratic states and cities is charging that EPA’s plan to scrap all vehicle greenhouse standards ignores states’ reliance interests, exceeds limited agency authority to “revise” the standards, and cannot rely on the agency’s plan to scuttle its GHG risk finding that would be “ineffective” in undoing the basis for the standards. In Sept. 22 comments , the coalition cites $1.2 trillion in avoided climate harms under the current federal GHG program over the next three decades,...

Automakers Seek ‘Backstop’ Vehicle GHG Standards As Regulatory Hedge

The main auto sector trade group is calling on the EPA to adopt revised vehicle greenhouse gas standards as an “alternative or backstop” to the agency’s proposal to scrap its greenhouse gas endangerment finding and related vehicle GHG limits, calling such a plan “critical if motor vehicle GHG standards are retained or reinstated in some way.” The pitch in Sept. 22 comments from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation builds on the sector’s recent push for interim relief from the standards...

In U.N. Address, Trump Urges Allies To Halt Climate Mitigation Efforts

In an address to the United Nations, President Donald Trump called climate change a major “con job” and jabbed wind energy as expensive and ineffective -- bringing the administration’s anti-renewable and pro-fossil fuel agenda to the global stage. He urged allied nations to follow his lead to abandon carbon reduction goals and expand use of traditional energy -- building on comments from administration officials encouraging countries to buy United States oil and gas exports, and abandon Russian fuel. Climate change...

Comments Show High Stakes Legal Fight Over EPA’s GHG Finding Repeal

Emerging public comments are underscoring the agency’s high stakes gamble -- pinned largely to threshold Clean Air Act (CAA) legal arguments but also claiming science and technology rationales -- in its bid to scrap its greenhouse gas endangerment finding and related vehicle GHG rules. It is a “high-risk, high-reward endeavor” for the Trump EPA’s deregulatory push, said Boyden Gray attorney Michael Buschbacher, alluding during remarks at a Sept. 17 American Enterprise Institute forum to the finding’s role in justifying GHG...

Industry Asks 9th Circuit To Halt California GHG Disclosure Laws Amid Appeal

Industry groups are seeking to convince the 9th Circuit to quickly block implementation of California’s corporate climate-disclosure laws while they appeal a lower court decision rejecting their preliminary injunction request -- with the plaintiffs bringing First Amendment arguments already eyeing Supreme Court appeal. “Plaintiffs now face imminent, irreparable harm, with compelled speech due on or before January 1, 2026, and unrecoverable compliance burdens being incurred already,” states a Sept. 15 motion for injunction pending appeal in Chamber of Commerce of...

Industries Urge CARB To Extend GHG-Reporting Deadline, Clarify Key Terms

Industry groups and corporations are urging the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to extend a proposed June 2026 deadline to disclose their “scope 1” and “scope 2” greenhouse gas emissions, while also seeking clarity on key terms that will determine which entities are subject to the state’s landmark climate-disclosure program. The California Manufacturers & Technology Association (CMTA), for example, “is concerned that it may not be feasible for companies to gather and assure Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions data...

In Blow To EPA Plan, NAS Says GHG Harms ‘Beyond Scientific Dispute’

The National Academies’ just-issued review of recent climate science says the “evidence for current and future harm to human health and welfare created by human-caused [greenhouse gases] is beyond scientific dispute,” rebuffing EPA’s claims, as part of its proposal to undo its 2009 GHG endangerment finding, that the science is unsettled. The Sept. 17 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) underscores appraisals from many observers that EPA’s final rule will have to rely on legal...

HFC Manufacturer Asks Full D.C. Circuit To Reconsider Nondelegation Claim

A hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) manufacturer is asking the full D.C. Circuit to rehear its claim that Congress illegally delegated legislative authority to EPA in the 2020 HFC control law, detailing what it sees as faults of a unanimous panel decision that found no constitutional violations in the law’s HFC phasedown program. RMS of Georgia, also known as Choice Refrigerants, writes in a Sept. 15 petition that the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act “instructs an agency to dictate who may continue...

CARB Chair Retires, Newsom Appoints Climate Advisor As Replacement

California Air Resources Board (CARB) Chair Liane Randolph is resigning from the post after nearly five years, and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is appointing his current senior climate advisor Lauren Sanchez as her replacement to lead an agency that has been battling the Trump administration’s rollbacks of air and climate programs. “Serving the public has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am incredibly proud of everything the agency has accomplished over the last five years,” Randolph said in...

EPA Downplays Congressional Directive For GHG Reporting In Repeal Plan

EPA’s proposed rule to scrap nearly all greenhouse gas reporting for industry is brushing aside arguments that Congress directed such reporting over a decade ago, with the agency also claiming it lacks a basis for requiring “continuous” emissions tracking under its Clean Air Act (CAA) information-gathering authority. EPA’s Sept. 12 proposal also acknowledges that undoing its GHG Reporting Rule (GHGRP) could complicate implementation of federal tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as well as clean hydrogen, but the...

EPA Proposes To Largely Scrap Industrial GHG Reporting Requirements

EPA is seeking to repeal reporting requirements for virtually all industrial sectors currently subject to its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), despite a congressional mandate to create such a program, and to suspend until 2034 most “Subpart W” oil and gas sector rules while also repealing mandates for gas distribution operations. The proposal follows through with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s March pledge to “reconsider” the program -- and subsequent reports that EPA would virtually eliminate it -- even as critics...

EPA Allows Arizona To Take Over CO2 Storage, Other Injection Well Permits

EPA is finalizing its approval for Arizona to directly issue Underground Injection Control (UIC) permits for all types of wells, including Class VI wells needed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) that have been a key policy focus in recent years for backers of the climate change mitigation technology. While the Grand Canyon State does not currently have any pending permits immediately affected by the move, state officials and others say the move paves the way for future CCS development...

Disbanded DOE Climate Group Poses New Challenges For EPA, Critics Say

Trump administration critics say EPA appears to face a new challenge in addressing criticism of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) report downplaying climate risks -- after DOE disbanded the working group that developed it -- underscoring the possibility EPA could de-emphasize science arguments in a final rule to undo its climate risk finding. It appears that Energy Secretary Chris Wright “is leaving [EPA Administrator] Lee Zeldin holding the bag,” Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior attorney David Doniger tells Inside...

California Opposes Effort To ‘Short-Circuit’ Suit Over Auto Waiver Repeals

California and allied states are urging the 9th Circuit to continue pausing litigation challenging Biden EPA federal preemption waivers for two of California’s vehicle emissions programs, opposing an industry and EPA bid to dismiss the cases in a way that could also truncate the states’ district court litigation challenging Congress’s repeal of those waivers. “The Court should not countenance this attempt to . . . short-circuit separate litigation that raises novel and complex constitutional claims against unprecedented actions by the...

Experts Flag Significance Of CARB Guidance For Climate Disclosure Rules

Industry attorneys and other experts are highlighting new guidance from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to help companies comply with forthcoming requirements to report climate-related financial risks and measures to reduce and adapt to such risks, underscoring the significance of the state’s first-in-the-nation mandates. “The bulk of the draft guidance consists of a checklist to be used in preparing the climate risk report required by Section 38533,” states a Sept. 3 blog post by attorneys with Ropes & Gray,...

Climate Policy Fades From ECOS’ Agenda Despite Continuing Priority

SANTA FE, NM -- Climate policy appears to have faded as a headline discussion item from state environmental regulators’ agenda in the face of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to shrink climate-related rules and eliminate grants, even though some states continue to identify the issue as a priority. “With respect to grants, work plans, we’ve all had to remove certain words from our documents we provide, and ‘climate’ has been one of those words,” said James Kenney, New Mexico’s environment...

DOE Dissolves Climate Skeptic Group, Spurring Doubts Over Report’s Fate

The Energy Department’s (DOE) decision to dissolve a working group that developed its controversial report questioning mainstream climate science is raising questions about the report’s fate, and its role in supporting EPA’s planned repeal of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, amid heavy criticism from the scientific community. Even so, the report’s authors and administration officials are pledging to respond to such critiques, while arguing that environmentalists erred in advancing a lawsuit alleging procedural flaws with the working group. According to...

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