EPA Agenda

Climate Policy Skeptics Ramp Up Pitch To Scuttle Endangerment Finding

Conservative climate change policy skeptics are ramping up scientific and economic arguments for EPA to quickly and fully reverse its greenhouse gas endangerment finding and climate rules, highlighting claims that the agency is likely to weigh when it launches a process to re-examine the landmark 2009 risk finding. The early claims come as industry observers have been suggesting that EPA’s expected push to scrap the finding faces significant legal risk and could amount to a distraction from its deregulatory push...

GOP Former Officials Say Repealing GHG Finding Not ‘Most Fruitful Effort’

Republican former EPA officials say Administrator Lee Zeldin’s plan to revoke the agency’s landmark 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding faces major legal hurdles and thus might be a poor strategy to implement the Trump administration’s agenda of scaling back the agency’s climate rules. All of the other dozens of items on Zeldin’s deregulatory agenda “are no surprise, except the endangerment finding,” says one former EPA official during President Donald Trump’s first term. This source acknowledges it is the prerogative of...

Senate Democrats Blast EPA Plans To Shutter GHG Reporting Program

Senate environment committee Democrats are urging EPA not to end the agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), arguing the 15-year-old data collection program was created pursuant to a congressional directive and that it bolsters U.S. competitiveness by enabling industry to prove it has lower emissions than overseas competitors. The Democrats “strongly urge you to halt your plans to shutter the GHGRP and related offices and to reinstate any functions already dissolved,” reads a May 7 letter to EPA Administrator Lee...

White House Eyes Ways To Blunt GHG Rulings As It Directs SCC Rollback

White House regulatory office acting chief Jeff Clark is directing EPA and other agencies to minimize or end their use of the social cost of carbon (SCC) metric to analyze federal actions’ climate effects, while also instructing officials to seek options to skirt any appeals court decisions calling for monetization of the carbon benefits of federal actions. The guidance, outlined in a May 5 memo from the Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), implements part of President Donald Trump’s...

Withheld By Trump EPA, EDF Releases Inventory Showing Drop In GHGs

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is releasing the latest U.S. greenhouse gas emissions inventory after it obtained the report from EPA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), after the Trump administration previously blocked release of the data and in an unprecedented move declined to submit it to the United Nations. The environmental group is making available on its website documents including the full U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report , an executive summary and “extensive underlying information,” including drafts of...

EPA Signs Agreement With Texas Officials Aiming For CO2 Permit Authority

EPA says it will soon propose a rule granting Texas the authority to permit “Class VI” carbon storage wells needed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, a move that could significantly speed approvals of such projects in the oil and gas-heavy state. EPA Region 6 Administrator Scott Mason met with Texas oil and gas regulators April 29 to sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) detailing how the state would implement its Class VI permit program. EPA in a press...

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...

Trump’s Dismissal Of Climate Assessment Authors Confirms Prior Fears

The Trump administration’s dismissal of hundreds of experts working on the next federal climate science assessment is confirming fears that its recent scuttling of funding for the United States Global Research Program (USGCRP) would foreshadow efforts to undermine the congressionally mandated study. The move is also sparking questions about the extent to which the dismissals could affect EPA’s upcoming reconsideration of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, though some observers doubt such a link given that the latter process is expected...

Trump Officials Prioritize ‘Delay’ In ‘Green Bank’ Moves, Observers Say

Newly reported internal EPA emails are highlighting the Trump administration’s heavy focus on delaying disbursement of high-profile “green bank” grant awards with an eye to scuttling the program, observers say, even though officials are aware of the legal risks of their moves. “They don't need to win in the short term or maybe even the long term, all they need is delay,” former EPA lawyer Gary Jonesi told Inside EPA ’s Climate Extra about the March 9 emails ,...

Zeldin Pledges Public Process To Revisit GHG Finding, Amid Skepticism

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is pledging that the agency will conduct a public comment process on the agency’s plan to reconsider and potentially scuttle its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, in remarks that appear to counter prior suggestions that EPA might use a “quick and dirty” process that dispenses with conventional rulemaking. Industry attorney and former EPA air chief Jeff Holmstead in a reaction to Zeldin’s remarks tells Inside EPA ’s Climate Extra that the agency “will be in a...

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...

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...

Former EPA Official Braces For 'Quick And Dirty' Attack On GHG Finding

A former top EPA official and others are bracing for the possibility that the Trump EPA pursues a "quick and dirty" approach to scrapping its greenhouse gas endangerment finding and sector-specific GHG rules, even as observers are expecting such efforts would be doomed to fail in the courts. “The data is limited” on the administration’s process for revisiting numerous GHG and other rules, says former Biden EPA air chief Joe Goffman in an interview with Inside EPA ’s Climate Extra...

School District Highlights Disruptions From EPA’s Clean Bus Grant Delays

An Oklahoma school district is highlighting disruptions it is experiencing in the wake of the Trump administration’s funding freezes for multiple federal programs, as the district is facing an over $1 million budget hole because of delayed rebates under EPA’s Clean School Bus (CSB) program. “Our district made this investment in good faith, expecting the promised rebate to be delivered in a timely manner,” Shawnee Public Schools transportation director John Wiles said in an April 1 press release . “The...

Trump Vow To Slash Auto Standards Appears To Exceed Automaker Asks

President Donald Trump’s pledge to revert EPA’s auto emissions program “to a 2020 standard” is underscoring expectations that Trump officials will pursue an aggressive rollback of greenhouse gas and fuel economy rules, even as such a move would go further than public advocacy from auto manufacturers. Trump’s comments during a March 31 oval office event on an unrelated matter, which were first reported by Bloomberg , come as EPA has yet to detail how it plans to scale back...

EPA Defends Scrapping ‘Green Bank’ Awards Based On Limited Oversight

EPA says the underlying structure of a $14 billion “green bank” program blocks the agency from conducting sufficient oversight and therefore required that EPA terminate awards under the program, as Trump officials urge a district court to reject grant recipients’ call for an injunction to release the halted funds. The agency says in a March 26 filing that it “reasonably terminated the grants based on concerns” that Biden officials “had significantly reduced federal oversight and control,” as well as a...

Environmentalists Renew Tort Suit Warnings If EPA Scraps GHG Finding

Environmentalists and other supporters of EPA’s greenhouse gas regulatory authority are underscoring warnings that the Trump administration’s potential move to reverse the agency’s landmark GHG endangerment finding will subject industry to a flood of new federal tort suits, while also removing a key defense for ongoing state tort cases. The arguments come as roughly 30 such suits are progressing in state courts across the country -- with state and local governments seeking to recover damages from oil companies due to...

Groups Seek To Expand Court Pause Over ‘Green Bank’ Grant Terminations

Groups that are challenging EPA’s termination of their awards under the agency’s major clean energy financing grant program are pressing a federal court to issue a preliminary injunction blocking EPA’s move and releasing the funds, a step that would build on a temporary order they won preventing EPA from immediately clawing back the money. Three groups -- which are all direct recipients of the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF), the largest program within the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund...

EDF Challenges GHG Reporting Delay, Amid Questions Of EPA ‘Shortcuts’

Environmentalists are launching a legal challenge to EPA’s recent delay of reporting requirements under its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), a measure that could presage what one former Biden official warns could be a series of “shortcuts” by the Trump EPA to advance its deregulatory agenda. The 60-day delay to the reporting requirements -- issued without notice and comment procedures -- is prompting questions about whether it stems from a relatively narrow glitch in agency operations or instead reflects broader...

OIG To Audit $7 Billion Solar Fund, Amid Ongoing Trump EPA Attacks

EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is beginning an audit of the agency’s $7 billion community solar grants program, boosting scrutiny of a component of the broader Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF) that has been the subject of ongoing attacks by Trump officials. “EPA welcomes the OIG’s audit of the Solar for All grant program and interest in the agency’s implementation Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund [GHGRF], which has well documented and concerning . . . financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest,...

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