Climate Policy Watch

This page is designed to keep you updated on the latest national policies to reduce greenhouse gases, drawing from all the Inside EPA family of publications and allowing you access to all this coverage regardless of your site-license restrictions.

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This page is designed to keep you updated on the latest national policies to reduce greenhouse gases, drawing from all the Inside EPA family of publications and allowing you access to all this coverage regardless of your site-license restrictions.

Shell Urges Congress To Pass CRA Repeal Of Trump EPA Methane Rule

The oil giant Shell is ramping up its support for EPA to impose direct methane standards for the industry, urging lawmakers to approve a pending congressional resolution that would rescind the Trump administration’s rule scuttling methane and other emissions controls on oil and gas facilities. “We need to restore the direct federal regulation of methane emissions, and we urge Congress to approve the methane resolution under the Congressional Review Act” (CRA), the company said in an April 8 tweet ...

DOJ Asks Court To Reject Youth Plaintiffs’ Bid To Revive Novel Climate Suit

The Biden administration is asking a federal district court to reject a request by 12 youth plaintiffs to narrow the remedy they are seeking and restart their climate suit -- which alleges the government has violated their constitutional rights by promoting fossil fuel use -- arguing the court must abide by an appellate decision that the plaintiffs lack standing. The Department of Justice (DOJ) in an April 6 filing in the long-running case, Juliana, et al. v. United States ,...

Environmentalists Press EPA For Multi-Pollutant Power Sector Agenda

Major environmental groups are urging President Joe Biden to set a “clear and aggressive schedule” for EPA to curb climate and conventional pollutants from power plants using air, water and waste laws, underscoring the pressures facing the fossil fuel-fired plants regardless of whether Congress enacts clean energy measures. The environmentalists’ push, in an April 6 letter , to Biden builds upon prior calls for the administration to focus on multi-pollutant approaches in other areas, including transportation and the oil and...

In Multipollutant Bid, Petition Seeks VOC Rules For Oil & Gas Methane

A coalition of more than 400 environmental groups is petitioning EPA to regulate oil and gas industry emissions of the greenhouse gas methane as a volatile organic compound (VOC) in Clean Air Act permits to curb not only methane but also ozone, part of environmentalists’ growing push for multipollutant air rules for specific sectors. In their petition filed with EPA April 6, the groups including Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Environmental Integrity Project, WildEarth Guardians and a host of local...

D.C. Circuit Vacates Trump Climate Rules On Landfills, GHG Risk Finding

A federal appellate court has vacated two Trump EPA climate change policies that significantly delayed implementation of methane rules for landfills and effectively barred greenhouse gas limits for a host of industrial sectors, opening the door for Biden officials to replace the policies with more-aggressive measures. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on April 5 ruled in two separate cases to grant EPA motions seeking vacatur of the rules, clearing the way for the agency...

D.C. Circuit Suspends Challenge Against Trump Vehicle GHG Rollback

An appellate court has granted the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to suspend litigation challenging the Trump administration’s rollback of federal vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards, clearing the way for EPA and the Transportation Department to craft a proposal for tougher rules. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an April 2 order in the consolidated case Competitive Enterprise Institute, et al., v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), et al. granting...

Appellate Court Finds Clean Air Act Preempts NYC Climate Nuisance Suit

Correction Appended In a major win for industry groups, a federal appellate court has for the first time upheld a district court decision that a climate nuisance suit brought by a municipality against oil companies is preempted by the Clean Air Act – a decision that comes as the Supreme Court is reviewing another climate nuisance case on procedural grounds. “The question before us is whether municipalities may utilize state tort law to hold multinational oil companies liable for...

EPA, Canada Pledge To ‘Accelerate’ Joint Efforts On Climate Change

With President Joe Biden’s April 22 Climate Leaders Summit approaching, EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Canada’s Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson are pledging to “accelerate” cooperation in three priority areas -- oil and gas methane emissions, transportation pollution and cleaner power -- to address climate change. In a joint April 1 statement , the two officials promised cooperation “to accelerate policy actions based on science and evidence that support a healthy and just world for all.” “Today we recommit to working...

Biden Infrastructure Plan Details Billions In Climate Spending, Seeks CES

The Biden administration has released details of its long-awaited proposal for an array of climate-related spending on transportation, power and clean-energy manufacturing infrastructure and the workforce, while reiterating a commitment to establishing a clean electricity standard (CES) to achieve its emissions goals. The roughly $2 trillion, eight-year American Jobs Plan includes proposals to spend billions of dollars on electric vehicles (EVs) and other transportation measures, tax credits and other supports for cleaner electricity, a program to plug abandoned oil and...

AMWA outlines EPA water policy priority concerns for Regan

The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) is outlining its pressing concerns for EPA Administrator Michael Regan, offering to convene a small group of water utility CEOs and general managers to discuss with the agency the challenges of climate change, cybersecurity and preventing chemicals from entering the water supply. AMWA, which represents large municipally owned drinking water utilities, raises some of the same issues as did the American Water Works Association in a recent letter to Regan . The latter...

EPA sends HFC phasedown plan to White House for review

EPA has sent a draft proposal to phase down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) for White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) pre-publication review, continuing its rapid pace to use new Clean Air Act authority for regulating HFCs, which are potent greenhouse gases that also harm the stratospheric ozone layer. HFCs were promoted as replacements for ozone-depleting substances targeted by the Montreal Protocol but are potent GHGs largely used in refrigeration, air-conditioning, foam blowing, aerosols and fire protection. The agency sent the...

OMB Reviewing Biden Plan To Reauthorize State Vehicle GHG Programs

The White House is formally reviewing the Biden administration’s proposal to reverse a Trump-era attack on state vehicle greenhouse gas programs, although questions remain over whether the plan will narrowly fault the Trump administration’s lack of authority for its policy or more broadly affirm states’ rights over such programs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), part of the Department of Transportation, on March 24 submitted the proposed rule for mandatory White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) pre-publication...

Updated SCC May Boost Air Act Rules But Not Policies Under Other Laws

The Biden administration’s interim updated social cost of carbon (SCC) metric might help EPA to justify pursuing stringent Clean Air Act (CAA) climate regulations but is likely to have less or no impact on policies under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA), say Holland & Hart lawyers. The firm addresses the SCC issue in the first installment of its new guide to the climate and energy transition, The DC Shift , published March 22 by...

CRA Risks Downplayed As Democrats Seek To Revoke EPA Methane Rule

Democrats are poised to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to scrap the Trump EPA’s rule that rescinded direct oil and gas methane limits, despite earlier concerns from some Democratic supporters about lending credence to a deregulatory tool whose use many environmentalists have long opposed. But sources say there may be few risks to using it in this specific case given that the methane rule was essentially “all bad” from the viewpoint of defenders of strong regulations, according to James...

Biden Administration Shows Early Support For Industry Ship GHG Plan

The Biden administration is offering early support for a revised plan by a U.S.-based shipping sector body for an industry-funded research organization to develop new low-carbon options for fueling ships, a category of mobile sources for which EPA has not yet set greenhouse gas standards compared to other regulated sources such as cars and aircraft. Under the plan developed by the World Shipping Council (WSC), which represents much of the world container shipping sector, shipping companies would jointly fund the...

Regan Announces Agriculture Advisor To Coordinate Climate Policies

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said he plans to appoint an agriculture advisor to coordinate climate policies with the departments of Interior, Energy and Agriculture, among other agencies, as part of President Joe Biden’s whole-of-government approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Regan suggested the agriculture advisor would be on par with his past announcement that he plans to appoint an environmental justice advisor as the Biden administration is pushing equity as a goal for its sweeping climate agenda for mitigating impacts...

Regan Eyes ‘Aggressive’ EPA Action To Reduce Vehicle GHG Emissions

EPA Administrator Michael Regan is eyeing “aggressive action” to reduce greenhouse gases from vehicles including passenger cars, commercial trucks and buses that will include a major emphasis on electrification, saying an ambitious effort to curb transportation GHGs is necessary to meet President Joe Biden’s climate goals. “We have such an ambitious agenda ahead of us,” he said in March 24 remarks during a session of the virtual annual meeting of Ceres, a sustainability advocacy nonprofit. Regan said that as EPA...

Consumer Group Offers Details For Major GHG Cuts From New Vehicles

Consumer Reports (CR), which has long sought to cut vehicles’ carbon emissions, is offering new details on advocates’ push for the auto industry to cut new vehicle emissions 60 percent by 2030, urging Biden officials to boost fuel economy as well as increase electric vehicle (EV) sales as they craft new policies for the sector. The group’s March 22 fact sheet also marks the latest signal that environmental and public interest advocates are ramping up claims that California’s 2019 greenhouse...

Unions Urge Congress To Adopt CES ‘Wires Charge’ To Address Job Losses

As officials weigh adoption of a clean energy standard (CES) to decarbonize the power sector by 2035, labor unions are urging Congress to ensure any legislation codifying such a standard imposes a “wires charge” on retail power sales to provide revenue to help displaced workers make a “just transition” from fossil fuels. In a March 22 memo obtained by Inside EPA , the labor officials tell key lawmakers that the plans currently under consideration for a CES will not do...

Industry Backs Bid For High Court To Move Nuisance Cases To Federal Court

Major industry groups and GOP-led states are backing oil companies’ efforts to have the Supreme Court move novel municipal climate nuisance cases brought against them from state to federal court, filing amicus briefs in support of petitions asking the justices reverse an appellate ruling that rejected the firms’ venue claim. In amicus briefs filed earlier this month, groups including the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute (API) as well as 17...

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