From Climate Extra

Senate Backs Reconciliation Bill Slashing Numerous Clean Energy Supports

The Senate has narrowly backed budget reconciliation legislation that rolls back numerous Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) clean energy tax credits and repeals numerous climate change programs, after making relatively modest changes to a prior June 28 draft of the bill including the deletion of a proposed new tax on wind and solar projects. The final bill , which cleared a 50-50 tie after a vote from Vice President J.D. Vance, tees up consideration of the plan in the House as...

CEC Details Plan To Avoid Fuel ‘Crisis’ As CARB Downplays LCFS Impacts

The California Energy Commission (CEC) is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to provide regulatory relief to the oil industry as part of a multi-pronged plan to avoid a fuel supply “crisis” due to the planned shuttering of two local refineries. But the CEC’s call for regulatory relief comes as the state air board is making the case that tougher rules under its low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) won’t further drive up gasoline prices. “We think the Administration should consider partnering with...

EPA Sends Combined GHG Finding, Vehicle Rule Rollbacks To OMB

EPA has sent to the White House for final review a proposed rule walking back the landmark GHG endangerment finding and vehicle emissions standards -- confirming expectations that the agency would combine its endangerment finding reconsideration with a vehicle rule repeal even as the regulation’s exact scope remains unclear. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received the proposal, titled “Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Reconsideration Rule,” on June 30. EPA’s planned rollback of the greenhouse gas endangerment...

OMB Begins Review Of EPA Plan To Reconsider GHG Reporting Program

The White House has begun reviewing EPA’s proposed rule to reconsider and potentially repeal its greenhouse gas reporting program that has collected emissions data on over 8,000 facilities since 2009, an effort that some have warned could face statutory hurdles given congressional mandates to develop such rules. The White House Office of Management and Budget received the proposal , titled “Reconsideration of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program” on June 27. Such reviews usually take 90 days but can be faster...

Senate Takes Up New Attacks On Clean Energy As Budget Bill Nears Passage

The Senate is pushing to approve by as soon as June 30 its budget reconciliation bill that scuttles numerous Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) environmental grants and clean energy incentives -- after spurning draft language to soften some tax credit cuts -- setting up potential House enactment by July 4 despite harsh criticism from the clean energy sector. “We are slashing Biden’s Green New Deal spending and promoting America-First energy,” said Senate Finance Committee chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) in a June...

States, Groups Challenge NHTSA’s Initial Fuel Economy Rollback Rule

States and environmentalists are filing legal challenges to the National Highway Traffic Administration’s (NHTSA) “interpretive rule” that represents the agency’s first step toward rolling back Biden-era fuel economy standards, as the rule bars officials from any consideration of electric vehicles (EVs) in developing the standards. The June 20 suits in separate appellate courts signal immediate pushback by Democratic-led states and environmental groups to NHTSA’s launch of its deregulatory effort, with the interpretive rule issued without public comment. The details of...

Newsom, Lawmakers Debate Proposal To Exempt GHG Rules From Analysis

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and top state lawmakers are debating whether to advance a controversial Senate budget proposal to skip key environmental and economic analyses for the state air board’s rules to implement two landmark laws requiring large companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. The debate comes after the Senate earlier this month included a surprise proposal for fiscal year 2025-26 budget “trailer bill language” to exempt rules being developed by the California Air Resources...

Court Unfreezes States’ EV Charger Funds, But Broader Impact Unclear

A federal district court is granting over a dozen states’ motion for a preliminary injunction to at least temporarily unfreeze infrastructure law funding for electric vehicle (EV) charging projects, but the broader effect of the order is uncertain as the Department of Transportation (DOT) is updating the grant program under the Trump administration. “When the Executive Branch treads upon the will of the Legislative Branch, and when an administrative agency acts contrary to law, it is the Court’s responsibility to...

5th Circuit Vacates EPA’s Test Fuel Rule As Officials Ready Auto Rollbacks

The 5th Circuit is vacating EPA’s revised test fuel requirements that account for increased ethanol blending into gasoline for fuel efficiency compliance and labeling rules, agreeing with biofuel and other liquid fuel groups that the agency did not offer a reasoned justification for the measure and ignored technical criticisms. The fuels groups argued EPA’s requirements overstated ethanol’s fuel economy penalty, and thus artificially increased the stringency of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) efficiency standards. As such, the June...

Uber, Lyft Say EV-Mandate Rollbacks Hurt Ability To Meet California Rules

Uber and Lyft executives are telling California lawmakers that Congress’ decision to block the state from mandating greater sales of electric vehicles (EVs) might further hinder the rideshare companies’ ability to meet required cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and increases in “electric vehicle miles traveled” (eVMT) from their drivers’ vehicles. “While Uber remains committed to achieving the Clean Miles Standard [CMS] goals -- which require [transportation network companies (TNCs)] to average 30 percent eVMT over the next year and 90...

Senate Parliamentarian Finds EPA Auto Repeal Ineligible For Budget Bill

Senate Democrats are stating that the chamber’s parliamentarian has determined that a proposal to rescind the Biden EPA’s multi-pollutant standards for passenger vehicles is ineligible for fast-track passage via Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill, a finding that could force Trump officials to engage in a complicated process to repeal the rule. The Capitol Hill maneuvering -- which for now leaves the legislative proposal to repeal EPA’s rule in limbo -- comes as industry sources say agency leadership appears to be leaning...

California Advances Bill Requiring Suppliers To Recycle Dead EV Batteries

California lawmakers are continuing to advance a bill that would create a regulatory system in which electric vehicle (EV) battery suppliers must ensure the responsible end-of-life management of batteries, including recycling and repurposing, a measure that supporters say will serve as a strict national model but which has split auto manufacturers. “Even as we seek to dramatically grow our EV system, we simply don’t have a good policy framework in place to ensure that these beneficial outcomes that we seek...

Groups Urge Newsom To Reject Oil Sector Incentives As Fuel ‘Crisis’ Looms

Environmentalists are pressing California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), lawmakers and energy officials to avoid offering oil firms new economic incentives to maintain an adequate supply of transportation fuel amid looming refinery closures and a possible fuel supply “crisis,” even as Newsom and agency leaders are weighing such steps. “Oil lobbyists are using refinery closures, the threat of gas price spikes, and misinformation to pressure California lawmakers for even more subsidies and rollbacks,” argue more than 30 environmental, climate and equity...

Observers See Better Odds For EPA’s ‘Fallback’ Utility GHG Repeal Claims

EPA is arguing the Biden-era power plant greenhouse gas requirements are premised on technologies that are not "adequately demonstrated," "cost-reasonable," or "available" -- with observers suggesting these "fallback" arguments in its proposal to scrap the standards are more likely to survive court scrutiny than EPA's sweeping claim that it need not regulate power plant GHGs at all. That primary argument in the June 11 proposed rule -- that power plant GHGs do not “significantly contribute” to harmful air pollution --...

EPA Races To Undo Endangerment Finding With Help Of Climate Skeptics

EPA’s forthcoming proposal to undo its landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare is being crafted with the views of outside scientists that criticize mainstream climate change science findings and is being shepherded by key White House regulatory officials, sources close to the administration say. The sources add that EPA leaders are hoping to release the proposal next month, possibly alongside proposed rollbacks of vehicle greenhouse gas standards. The small team of non-government climate scientists includes...

Trump, Newsom Clash On Whether CRAs Bar California Auto GHG Limits

President Donald Trump is claiming that newly enacted Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions rescinding federal preemption waivers for several California vehicle rules will bar any future California vehicle greenhouse gas standards, but state officials and their defenders argue the state can and will adopt such requirements. The Clean Air Act allows EPA “to grant waivers to California to address only compelling and extraordinary localized issues,” Trump says in a June 12 statement . But after signing the CRA resolutions into...

States Launch Novel Lawsuit Over CRA Attack On California Vehicle Waivers

Nearly a dozen states in a novel lawsuit are detailing multiple constitutional and statutory claims that EPA and other federal officials wrongly rescinded preemption waivers for three California vehicle emissions rules via the Congressional Review Act (CRA), contending the CRA resolutions are invalid and the state rules thus remain enforceable. The states’ June 12 litigation , filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, immediately followed a White House signing ceremony where President Donald Trump asserted...

EPA Floats ‘Poorly Reasoned’ Claims On GHG ‘Significance,’ Observers Say

Observers are faulting EPA’s legal arguments supporting its claim that power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions do not “significantly contribute” to public health harms, arguing the agency’s proposal on the issue is “poorly reasoned” and conflicts with the Supreme Court’s recent administrative law decisions. In its June 11 proposed rule , EPA argued that the agency can consider costs and administration policy priorities when determining if a sector’s emissions “significantly” affect such harms and thus must be regulated under section 111...

Industry Attacks Proposal To Exempt California GHG Rules From Analysis

Numerous industry groups are attacking California lawmakers’ surprise budget proposal to skip key environmental- and economic-impact analyses for the state air board’s rules to implement two landmark 2023 laws requiring large companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. “It’s very interesting that these [laws], which were presented as being about transparency and accountability, are now being exempted from statutes that squarely address transparency and accountability,” said Jon Kendrick, a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce, during...

EPA Proposes To Give Texas CO2 Well Permit Authority, Speeding CCS Plans

EPA is proposing to grant Texas primary authority to permit carbon storage wells needed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, a potential boon to the sector even as the Trump administration is also canceling federal funds intended to advance the burgeoning technology. Granting the Lone Star State permitting “primacy” could lead to quicker approvals of dozens of projects, given that a third of the 175 carbon storage permit requests currently under review at EPA are located in Texas. The...

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