Fossil Fuels - Climate Extra

D.C. Circuit Upholds Efficiency Rules For Gas Furnaces, Water Heaters

The D.C. Circuit is upholding several Biden-era rules that tighten efficiency standards for gas-fired home furnaces and commercial water heaters, rejecting long-pending claims from the natural gas sector that the standards violate key limits in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). A split Nov. 4 decision from a three-judge panel in American Gas Association (AGA), et al. v. Department of Energy (DOE), et al . finds that DOE was justified in determining that an appliance’s use of “condensing” or...

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...

Environmentalists Notch Win, Detail Claims In Lawsuits Over LNG Terminals

Environmental groups are ramping up their legal campaign against major liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, winning a court victory against Louisiana officials’ environmental review of one project while at the same time detailing arguments against federal officials’ approval of what would be the largest LNG export terminal in the country. In an Oct. 10 decision from a state court, the Sierra Club and other groups won a requirement for Louisiana officials to develop additional climate-related analysis for the proposed...

API Argues Biden EPA’s ‘Errors’ Justify Extending Methane Rule Deadlines

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is claiming that EPA’s controversial compliance extension for oil and gas sector methane controls is justified because of “errors” in the Biden-era rulemaking, as the industry seeks to shore up the legal rationale for EPA’s compliance delay plan first issued as an interim final regulation (IFR). The input to the agency, focused specifically on the IFR’s compliance delays for new and modified facilities, surfaces in Sept. 30 comments . However, the IFR, which extended several...

Oil & Gas Sector Cites Global Markets As Reason To Retain GHG Reporting

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is highlighting global energy markets as a reason to maintain some level of EPA’s greenhouse gas reporting requirements, a pitch that supplements separate industry concerns that scuttling the program could compromise the ability to claim federal tax credits for carbon storage and clean hydrogen production. “Maintaining credible reporting is essential to sustaining U.S. competitiveness and ensuring that U.S. [liquefied natural gas (LNG)] -- already among the lowest-emissions options available -- remains a cornerstone of global...

Industry Urges DOJ To Challenge Local Gas Hookup Rules, Building Codes

Industry groups and free market think tanks are encouraging the Trump administration to embrace arguments that various federal laws preempt state and local ordinances that ban or limit the use of gas appliances, a move aimed to bolster the administration’s ongoing attacks on state climate policies. “By banning fossil fuel infrastructure, they are setting an appliance energy use standard of zero for all gas appliances -- a stricter standard than the federal appliance standard, which causes a violation of” the...

Environmentalists Say EPA Lacks Basis For Oil & Gas Methane Rule Delay

Environmental groups are attacking EPA’s rule extending methane and other emissions compliance deadlines for the oil and gas sector, claiming the agency has offered no evidence for the need to extend the deadlines, even as the measure is already being challenged in court. The arguments supplement environmentalists’ litigation claims that the agency lacked a basis for claiming a “good cause” exemption from public comment procedures when it issued the deadline extensions as an interim final rule (IFR). The measure is...

EPA Urges Court To Preserve Oil And Gas Methane Compliance Delay

EPA is resisting environmentalists’ call for a court to immediately vacate the agency’s interim final rule delaying compliance requirements for oil and gas sector methane and other emissions, claiming it “lawfully invoked” a good-cause public comment exemption and that the groups have failed to justify their “extraordinary request.” EPA’s stance laid out in a Sept. 25 opposition motion filed in Environmental Defense Fund, et al. v. EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...

DOE’s Wright Presses Europe To Loosen Methane Control Requirements

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is pressing European Union officials to weaken their current methane emissions control program for gas imports and asserting that at least some European officials agree with him, arguing that such a step is needed to ensure greater U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to the continent. Wright’s remarks, during a Sept. 12 appearance at the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, came in response to a query from a representative of the International Association of...

Climate Policy Fades From ECOS’ Agenda Despite Continuing Priority

SANTA FE, NM -- Climate policy appears to have faded as a headline discussion item from state environmental regulators’ agenda in the face of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to shrink climate-related rules and eliminate grants, even though some states continue to identify the issue as a priority. “With respect to grants, work plans, we’ve all had to remove certain words from our documents we provide, and ‘climate’ has been one of those words,” said James Kenney, New Mexico’s environment...

Small Oil & Gas Producers Seek To Broaden Methane Rule Compliance Delay

Small oil and gas producers are urging EPA to expand the scope of its interim final rule that extends methane emissions compliance deadlines to also include delay of certain reporting requirements, even as environmental groups are challenging the rule in court as a violation of the Clean Air Act and Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The pitch, which surfaces in comments on EPA’s rulemaking, comes even as industry groups broadly praised the extension during a public hearing on the measure, while...

Group Launches New Tool For Linking Methane Releases To Air Toxics

A science-focused environmental group is touting a first-of-a-kind effort to “calculate and visualize” the effects of “methane-linked” hazardous air pollutants and their health risks, offering the latest advocacy efforts to highlight the local health implications from oil and gas sector emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane and other pollutants. The effort, which is relevant to community-level climate and health policy advocates, could also have added significance as the Trump EPA pushes to deregulate industrial polluters in part by downplaying...

Environmentalists Urge D.C. Circuit To Quickly Scrap Methane-Delay Rule

Environmental groups are pressing the D.C. Circuit to quickly scrap EPA’s interim final rule (IFR) delaying oil and gas companies’ compliance deadlines for Biden-era methane rules, filing a motion for summary vacatur that argues the interim measure flouts core Clean Air Act procedural requirements. “EPA’s action substantially delays compliance dates under a final Clean Air Act rule the agency issued in 2024, which provides critical protections against some of the nation’s largest sources of air pollution,” the groups say in...

EJ Groups, Industry Clash Over Newsom’s Plan To Spur Oil Production

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) draft legislation to spur new oil production in the state to avoid a fuel supply “crisis” is drawing clashing responses from environmental groups and the petroleum industry, with both sides urging his administration to substantially amend the plan before presenting it to lawmakers in the coming weeks. The draft proposal “is a step in the wrong direction and will not achieve reliability in supply or price. Instead, it marks the arrival of the Trump Administration’s...

Environmental Groups Challenge Oil & Gas Methane Standards Delay

A dozen environmental groups are challenging EPA’s interim final rule to delay oil and gas companies’ compliance deadlines for Biden-era methane rules, declaring that the agency’s efforts to delay the deadlines by roughly 18 months without public comment is a “clear violation of the law.” The groups filed an Aug. 1 petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, styled as Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) v. Lee Zeldin . It was filed the...

EPA Moves To Extend Oil And Gas Sector Emissions Compliance Deadlines

EPA has released an interim final rule to extend Biden EPA compliance deadlines for control of methane and other emissions from oil and gas facilities, vowing that the measure will be the “first of multiple actions the EPA plans to take to ensure that oil and gas regulations do not overburden producers.” “The extensions in the [new rule] provide more realistic timelines for owners and operators to meet requirements and for states to develop and submit plans for limiting emissions...

Judge Backs L.A. District, Rejects Industry Claims Boiler Rule Violates EPCA

A federal judge is siding with Los Angeles air district regulators and rejecting a gas industry lawsuit that claims the district’s rule requiring commercial buildings to transition to zero-emission industrial water heaters is preempted by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), maintaining that a prior court decision does not support the claim. In that precedential case -- California Restaurant Association (CRA) v. City of Berkeley -- a federal district court found that EPCA preempted the city’s ban on...

OMB completes review of EPA methane delay rule

White House officials have completed their inter-agency review of an EPA interim final rule delaying deadlines in the Biden administration’s oil and gas sector methane standards, suggesting that the agency could soon release the measure that would take immediate effect. According to the Office of Management & Budget’s (OMB) website, it completed review of EPA’s rule on July 22. OMB review, the final step in the regulatory process before the agency publicly releases a rule, came after an unusual start...

EDF Renews Warnings About Delaying Biden EPA Methane Rule Deadlines

An environmental group is renewing arguments that EPA’s upcoming interim final rule to delay deadlines in the Biden administration’s oil and gas sector methane rule is on shaky legal ground, as various groups express input on the measure with the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) prior to its release. “The methane rules were adopted through a lengthy three-and-a-half-year rulemaking process, tons of public input and a robust scientific and technical foundation,” Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) attorney Edwin...

Summit Underscores Trump-Backed Link Between Fossil Fuel Energy, AI

A summit focused on energy and artificial intelligence (AI) in Pennsylvania is underscoring what some see as a critical link between fossil fuel-fired power and AI-driven demand increases, with President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders touting the role of gas and coal power in enabling data center development. Trump and other administration officials joined AI and energy industry leaders at the July 15 event organized by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA). “You need the natural gas or coal infrastructure in...

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