Congress Agenda

Cramer, Whitehouse Urge EPA To Withdraw GHG Reporting Repeal Plan

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) -- key voices in their respective parties on energy and environmental issues -- are pressing EPA to withdraw its proposal to undo its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), raising concern that such a move would undercut the competitiveness of U.S. industry. The request in a Nov. 3 letter to EPA amplifies industry warnings that ending GHG reporting for nearly all sectors -- and suspending certain oil and gas sector reporting until 2034...

Burgum, GOP Lawmakers Clash On Technology Focus In Permitting Deal

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and key Republican lawmakers are staking out contrasting approaches on the need for technology neutrality as they strive to craft a deal on environmental reviews and other energy-project permitting policies, underscoring challenges to reaching a bipartisan agreement with sufficient support from Democrats. During an Oct. 20 event hosted by the American Petroleum Institute (API), Burgum rejected the notion of softening the administration’s hostile approach to offshore wind power -- including by allowing previously permitted projects to...

Senate Democrats say EPA killing solar grants will hike power bills

Amid the potential political fallout from rising electricity prices, Senate Democrats are pressing to EPA reverse course on its termination of the agency’s Solar for All grants program that sought to deploy rooftop and community solar projects in low-income areas, a step they say would ease customer costs. “Your agency’s decision to terminate Solar for All is not only unlawful -- given this funding was congressionally appropriated and fully obligated -- but also ill-timed. Energy bills are soaring across the...

Reps. Peters, Barr Offer Transmission Bill Following Permit Framework Deal

Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Andy Barr (R-KY) have reintroduced legislation to expedite permitting for transmission and other energy projects, in a bill focused on replacing the controversial transmission corridors program with a new grant program while maintaining environmental reviews for such projects. The Peters-Barr bill , the Streamlining Powerlines Essential to Electric Demand (SPEED) and Reliability Act, would replace the Department of Energy’s (DOE) program for high-priority transmission corridors by allowing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to issue...

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...

Bill enables transmission providers to prioritize ‘dispatchable’ energy

The House has approved a bill to allow transmission providers to prioritize “dispatchable” energy -- which could advantage fossil energy sources -- but with only five Democrats voting in favor, the measure’s prospects in the Senate remain unclear. The “Guaranteeing Reliability through the Interconnection of Dispatchable Power” (GRID) Act, introduced by Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH) in February, requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to craft a rule to allow transmission providers to apply to receive higher placement in the...

House Republicans Float Overhaul Of DOE’s Appliance Efficiency Program

House Republicans are floating a series of bills that would overhaul the Energy Department’s (DOE) appliance efficiency standards program, including provisions that would set a higher bar for issuing tougher efficiency requirements while opening a first-time pathway to remove current standards. Lawmakers and witnesses at a Sept. 16 hearing discussed the bills, including Rep. Rick Allen’s (R-GA) H.R. 4626 , the “Don’t Mess With My Home Appliances Act,” which would make major changes to the Energy Policy and Conservation Act...

Senate Republicans Support EPA’s Power Plant GHG Repeal Proposal

Senate Republicans are backing EPA’s proposed rule that would rescind all power plant greenhouse gas standards, arguing the plan would correct the Obama and Biden administrations’ misinterpretation of a key Clean Air Act provision and an asserted conflict with a Supreme Court ruling barring rules that require generation shifting. The Biden EPA’s power plant GHG rules “put us at risk by exacerbating electric reliability threats and spiking energy costs borne by American families and businesses,” Senate Environment & Public Works...

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...

Ramping Up Climate Attacks, Republicans Target ELI’s Training For Judges

Republicans are ramping up pressure on the non-profit Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and its climate science education curriculum for judges, claiming the group secretly seeks to tip the legal scales in favor of regulating greenhouse gas emissions, which they say should disqualify it from receiving any EPA grants. While ELI has rejected the assertion, the GOP’s attacks signal an expanding strategy for countering plaintiffs in climate-related cases by attacking the impartiality of judges ruling in those cases. House Judiciary Committee...

House Oversight Panel Launches Inquiry Into NAS Climate Science Review

House oversight committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) is launching an investigation into the National Academies’ plans for quickly reviewing post-2009 climate science in an effort to inform the Trump EPA’s endangerment finding repeal, accusing the institution of “a blatant partisan act” against agency efforts to deregulate greenhouse gases. The move follows an August announcement by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) of an expedited review of climate science in an effort to inform EPA’s proposed recission of...

Environmentalists Seek More Low-Carbon Funds In Upcoming Transport Bill

Environmental groups are offering recommendations for Congress’ upcoming transportation reauthorization bill, arguing lawmakers should increase funding for programs that encourage vehicle electrification, public transit and low-carbon building materials development. However, it is unclear how much environmentalists will succeed in their push, given the Trump administration and congressional Republicans’ strong opposition to climate policies and electric vehicle (EV) efforts in particular. In recent comments on a Transportation Department (DOT) request for information (RFI) seeking to inform the legislative effort, environmental groups...

House Democrats Join Criticism Of EPA’s Science Claims In GHG Plan

House Democrats are heavily criticizing EPA’s proposal to scrap its greenhouse gas endangerment finding as contrary to widespread scientific findings about climate change risks, while also pressing the agency about whether it still intends to rely on a controversial Energy Department (DOE) report questioning mainstream climate science. The 2009 endangerment finding’s statement that GHGs pose risks to public health and the environment “is uncontroversial -- and, in fact, conservatively stated -- in the scientific community. It is only disputed by...

Senate Democrats Say EPA Intentionally Skews GOP’s Climate Fund Repeal

Senate Democrats are accusing EPA of illegally clawing back billions of dollars in already obligated clean energy funding, arguing the agency is intentionally misinterpreting Republicans’ budget law that rescinds the statutory provision for the agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF). “Despite these baseless attacks, the bottom line is that neither [the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)] nor Republicans understood the repeal and rescission of the GGRF to save anything more than EPA’s unspent oversight dollars. Wishful statutory interpretation on the part...

Senators Block Treasury Nominees Over Clean Power Tax Credit Rules

Two Republican senators are placing procedural holds on the chamber’s consideration of three Department of Treasury nominees, due to their concerns that upcoming Treasury rules could cut off many projects’ eligibility for wind and solar tax credits before deadlines Congress specified in its recent reconciliation law. The moves follow multiple indications this summer month that the Trump administration was looking to strictly interpret that law’s tougher eligibility rules for the incentives, including a July executive order directing Treasury to “strictly...

Senate Appropriators Rebuke Multiple EPA Climate Policy Rollbacks

Senate appropriators in their fiscal year 2026 spending bill are rebuking multiple aspects of EPA and other agencies’ climate and clean energy policy rollbacks, voicing support for continued EPA efforts to curb “harmful” greenhouse gases and to take various steps to cut planet-warming emissions. The legislation would give EPA $299 million for “efforts to address harmful air pollutants including greenhouse gases that are contributing to climate change,” the Senate Appropriations Committee says in a report accompanying their FY26 bill for...

Bill would block D.C. climate suit against oil majors

House Republicans are releasing an appropriations bill that would block funds for the District of Columbia to continue its climate nuisance and fraud lawsuit against oil majors, prompting concern from environmentalists who say the language was included in the measure after a court ruled that D.C.’s lawsuit could advance to trial. The July 17 House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Service and General Government bill , introduced by Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), says: “None of the funds provided by this Act or...

Input For Senate Highway Bill Includes Calls To Boost Climate Resilience

Senators’ effort to gather input on the next highway bill is showcasing a push to ensure the climate resilience of future transportation projects, and also spurring perennial calls for legislative permit streamlining efforts -- amid questions about whether lawmakers can reach a deal on the issue that withstands implementation by the White House. Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) during a July 16 hearing said, “I’m excited to get to work and continue the EPW...

House GOP Takes Aim At Biden EPA GHG Regulations In FY26 Legislation

House Republicans are proposing provisions in draft fiscal year 2026 spending legislation for EPA that would block implementation of numerous Biden-era climate rules, alongside a 23 percent cut to the agency’s budget that Democrats say would hinder the government’s response to climate change. The July 14 release of the bill text , prior to a planned July 15 House Appropriations subcommittee markup, offers a preliminary negotiating marker for the House chamber -- with the release of a Senate FY26 plan...

Whitehouse says EPA exaggerates tax law’s effect on ‘green bank’

Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is slamming the Trump administration’s “false claims” in court about how the Republicans’ recent reconciliation law will affect EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF) often referred as a “green bank.” “Trump’s [Department of Justice (DOJ)] is continuing its mischief by falsely claiming Republicans’ [reconciliation law] claws back $17 billion from [the GHGRF], even though the [Congressional Budget Office (CBO)] score for the unobligated funds was $19 billion --...

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