From Climate Extra

DOJ Sues Michigan, Hawaii To Block Expected Climate Nuisance Suits

The Trump administration is seeking to preemptively block Michigan and Hawaii from joining over two dozen other state and local governments that are seeking climate-related damages from oil and gas companies, as the Justice Department (DOJ) seeks to implement a White House directive to attack state and local climate change policies. DOJ’s complaints in federal district courts also respond to major oil and gas companies’ push for the Trump administration to help them fight numerous ongoing climate nuisance and fraud...

House Backs Attack On California’s ZEV Rule, Shifting Focus To Senate

The House has approved a resolution that would overturn California’s Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) program and its 2035 zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales mandate, even as it remains unclear how the Senate will respond to the measure and two other House-approved resolutions opposing California vehicle emissions programs. House lawmakers on May 1 backed the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution targeting ACC II in a 246-164 vote, including three dozen Democrats who supported the measure. That vote came on the...

House Backs Two CRA Measures Targeting California Vehicle Programs

The House April 30 approved two resolutions seeking to rescind EPA waivers for California’s vehicle programs -- its Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) program, and the state’s truck omnibus nitrogen oxides (NOx) rule -- though their fate, along with expected approval of a third measure on clean cars, remain uncertain in the Senate. The chamber backed the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution targeting the ACT measure in a 231-191 vote, while also approving the NOx rule CRA in a vote of...

CARB Schedules Workshop On GHG-Disclosure Rules, Ensuring Long Delay

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has scheduled a public workshop on the development of rules to implement landmark laws requiring large companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks, ensuring that the board will not adopt the rules until well after a July 1 statutory deadline. CARB staff says in an April 28 announcement that it will hold a “virtual public workshop” on May 29 to support the development of the rules. The rules will implement “California’s...

Automakers Endorse Capitol Hill Effort To Scuttle California ZEV Mandate

Automakers are formally endorsing a proposal under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to scuttle EPA’s preemption waiver for California’s 2035 zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, as House Republicans vow to press ahead despite procedural questions surrounding the Senate’s use of the CRA to target such waivers. “Alliance for Automotive Innovation urges the House to repeal the [EPA] rule permitting California and affiliated states to ban the sale of new gas vehicles -- and mandate 100 percent electric vehicle sales by...

D.C. Circuit Punts On EPA Bid To Stay GHGRF Ruling But Sets Quick Briefing

The D.C Circuit is delaying a decision on whether to grant EPA’s request for a long-term stay of a lower court decision that would restart funding for grant recipients under EPA’s greenhouse gas reduction fund (GHGRF) program, instead approving a quick schedule to consider the merits of the agency’s appeal. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit says in an April 28 order that “consideration of the motion for stay [will] be...

Interior Offers Expedited NEPA Option For Many Energy, Mineral Projects

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is moving to implement “alternative arrangements” that could significantly shorten National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews for fossil fuel, mineral, geothermal, biofuel and hydropower projects on public lands, based on President Donald Trump’s energy “emergency” declaration. The agency’s April 23 policy offers the prospect of far quicker reviews for the projects -- with officials promising that rigorous environmental impact statements (EIS) could be done in about a month -- but it is sparking questions...

Justices Grapple With Fuels Sector’s Standing In California Waiver Fight

Supreme Court justices during oral arguments appeared reluctant to embrace fuels groups’ claims that courts should presume non-regulated parties have standing to sue over actions harming their markets, even as they were more open to other options that might preserve the groups’ ability to challenge EPA’s 2022 waiver for California vehicle standards. The April 23 deliberations also highlighted justices’ wrestling with facts, over the specific Clean Air Act preemption waiver at issue in the suit, that complicate the ability to...

Industry Renews Push For Court To Block CARB’s GHG-Disclosure Rules

Ahead of oral arguments, industry groups are renewing their push for a preliminary injunction on the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) forthcoming rule to implement two landmark 2023 corporate climate disclosure laws, faulting the board’s recent arguments that the laws do not violate companies’ free-speech rights. “The State claims immediate enforcement of the laws -- i.e ., forcing companies to speak on a controversial issue -- is needed to counter ‘misleading or inaccurate’ speech. But it provides no evidence of...

CARB’s Late Changes To LCFS Draw Fresh Criticism From Multiple Groups

With the exception of the hydrogen sector, California Air Resources Board (CARB) officials are drawing strong criticism of their last-minute changes to sweeping and long-pending amendments to the state’s low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS), including critiques from biofuel makers, the oil industry, automakers, environmentalists and others. Many of these groups are also urging board officials to finalize the rulemaking so the new provisions can take effect as soon as possible, considering the changes were supposed to be in place roughly a...

Advocates Renew Push To Rebuff CRA Attacks On California Vehicle Rules

Scores of environmental and allied groups are renewing calls that lawmakers rebuff Congressional Review Act (CRA) measures that would rescind EPA’s approval of several California vehicle emissions programs, arguing that such repeal would be an unprecedented assault on states, and have damaging environmental and economic effects. The appeal in an April 21 letter to all members of Congress comes after Republicans floated CRA resolutions in both the House and Senate that would quickly scrap Biden-era federal preemption waivers for three...

Groups Challenge EPA Rule Allowing West Virginia To Permit CO2 Wells

Environmentalists are asking a federal court to scrap EPA’s rule granting West Virginia primary authority over carbon storage well permitting in the state, charging the state’s program is not as protective as federal rules in part because of state laws addressing pore space ownership and liability after a storage site’s closure. On April 11, the Sierra Club and several West Virginia-based groups petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to review EPA’s rule granting West Virginia “primacy”...

Judge Finds EPA Illegally Halted ‘Green Bank’ Grants, As EPA Wins Brief Stay

A district court judge is concluding that EPA has unlawfully attempted to scrap $20 billion in clean energy grants under the agency’s “green bank” program, finding the agency failed to explain its reasoning for canceling the awards and that it is wrongly seeking to scuttle the congressionally approved program as a policy matter. While the order seeks to restore grant recipients’ access to their funding, the Trump administration’s quick appeal of the decision has spurred the U.S. Court of Appeals...

Judge Orders ‘Green Bank’ Grant Funds To Restart, As EPA Quickly Appeals

A federal judge is ordering that grant recipients under EPA’s “green bank” program should regain access to their funds, despite the Trump EPA’s attempt to terminate $20 billion in awards under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF). Citibank, which is acting as the government’s financial “agent” for the program, “must disburse any funds properly incurred before the mid-February suspension of Plaintiffs’ funds,” says a preliminary injunction issued late April 15 in Climate United Fund v. Citibank, et al. , in...

Trump Threats Spur California Leaders To Prioritize Cap & Trade Extension

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and leaders of the state legislature are heightening their focus on advancing legislation this year to extend the state’s pioneering greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program well beyond 2030, partly in response to new threats by President Donald Trump to derail that and other state climate programs. “California must continue to lead on reducing pollution and ensuring our climate dollars benefit all residents. That’s why we’re doubling down on cap-and-trade: one of our most effective tools to...

EPA Presses Court To Stay Any Injunction Unfreezing ‘Green Bank’ Grants

EPA is signaling an aggressive response to any district court injunction restoring Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF) grant recipients’ access to $14 billion for low-carbon energy projects, filing a “contingent” motion that the court stay any such order even before it has issued a ruling on the plaintiffs’ call for a preliminary injunction. Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is expected to issue some type of injunction in the case, though it remains...

Environmentalists Attack CARB’s Late LCFS Changes Boosting Hydrogen

Environmentalists are attacking California Air Resources Board (CARB) officials for proposing significant last-minute changes to the state’s low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) that bolster the hydrogen sector, charging the revisions go beyond correcting deficiencies flagged by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). “These proposed changes are contrary to California’s climate goals and would further entrench California in polluting oil and gas extraction and refining, leaving fenceline communities to bear the brunt of heightened pollution burdens and ever-increasing climate harms,” asserted Lauren...

EPA Faces Statutory Hurdles For Expected Push To Scrap GHG Reporting

EPA is reportedly preparing to eliminate its greenhouse gas reporting mandates for nearly all industrial sources, though multiple statutory provisions could stand in its way, including Congress’s directive to develop its 2009 GHG reporting rules and longstanding carbon dioxide reporting requirements for electric utilities, according to observers. “EPA is going to have to show that it has legal authority for repeal, and if so, it has a reasoned, non-arbitrary basis. That's a loser for them,” one environmental lawyer claims. While...

Trump Said To Cancel Climate Review Contract, Amid EPA GHG Rollbacks

Reports that the Trump administration has scaled back or terminated a contract supporting staff for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) are sparking fears that officials will effectively kill or significantly repurpose a congressionally mandated federal climate assessment in ways that could accelerate climate misinformation. The reports are also prompting questions about whether the administration’s climate science personnel action might set the stage for future release of information that the administration might use to inform, or later defend, a...

Lawyers Expect Loper To Limit Deregulation, GHG Risk Finding Reversal

Legal experts say the Supreme Court’s decision last year ending deference to agencies’ statutory interpretation is likely to put some constraints on the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda, particularly EPA’s planned rollback of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding given statutory language supporting the agency’s longstanding approach. The decision, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo , “will constrain, I think, both aggressively pro-environmental administrations and aggressively deregulatory administrations, like the Trump administration,” argued Jeff Holmstead, former Bush EPA air chief and now partner...

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