Infrastructure - Climate Extra

As Biden Exits Race, Environmentalists Urge Expansion Of Climate Legacy

Environmentalists are heaping praise on President Joe Biden’s climate and environmental record in the wake of his decision to exit the presidential race, while also urging preservation and expansion of that legacy as many groups begin to line up in support of Vice President Kamala Harris to face off against former President Donald Trump in November. The reaction comes with Biden July 21 endorsing Harris as his successor, but with Democrats also pledging an abbreviated open process to formally choose...

House Republicans Float Bill To Ease EPA Permitting Of CO2 Wells

Top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are floating draft pipeline legislation that includes a path for companies seeking to inject carbon dioxide underground to seek “aquifer exemptions” from drinking water protections if EPA finds that CO2 injection wells are unlikely to affect drinking water supplies. The language is part of broader legislation that seeks to speed construction of pipelines through several provisions, including expanded Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authority to permit pipelines in existing rights of...

Narrow GOP Gains Signal Scrutiny Of Biden Agenda, Permitting Debate

Smaller-than-expected GOP gains in the Nov. 8 midterms appear to pave the way for Republican takeover of at least one Capitol Hill chamber and more aggressive oversight of Biden administration environment initiatives, even as some observers say a divided Congress could still produce legislation easing energy project permitting. But the surprise election result has left control of the Senate up for grabs as experts say the final result might be unknown for days or weeks, given ongoing vote counting in...

Senators Split Over Need For New Authority To Oversee Hydrogen Pipelines

Senators are at odds over how to regulate the growing network of pipelines that will be needed to transport low-carbon hydrogen and are clashing over whether Congress should intervene to clarify whether the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) or the Surface Transportation Board (STB) has the authority to best support industry development. At a July 19 Senate energy committee hearing, Chairman Joe Manchin (D-WV) argued there is “uncertainty today around which federal laws apply to interstate hydrogen infrastructure and also...

DOE extends comment deadline for hydrogen ‘hub’ strategy

The Department of Energy (DOE) has extended by two weeks the deadline for parties to submit comments on its proposed strategy to establish low-carbon hydrogen infrastructure “hubs” as required by last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law. Comments as now due March 21. DOE issued a Feb. 15 “ request for information” (RFI) on its draft plan to establish up to 10 hubs linking producers with consumers, to encourage widespread use of “clean” hydrogen as an alternative for fossil fuels in transportation,...

DOE unveils ‘matchmaker’ clean hydrogen development ‘hubs’

The Department of Energy (DOE) is releasing an online “matchmaker” tool that will link hydrogen producers with users as a first step to implementing infrastructure law provisions calling for a series of “hubs” that will develop low-carbon hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels. DOE’s online H2 Matchmaker is now accepting responses for developing a map that will enable producers and users to find each other. “The map, to be published at a later date, will display information received through...

Biden Opens Door To Prioritizing Climate Investments In Budget Bill

President Joe Biden and Hill Democrats are publicly prioritizing climate change provisions amid growing talk of “breaking up” their pending budget “reconciliation” package, appearing to confirm prior speculation that those provisions are not the primary obstacle to passing the broader legislation. The statements suggest a potential route forward on the “Build Back Better” (BBB) plan after weeks of gridlock among Democrats, with some observers suggesting lawmakers might be rebranding the initiative to open the way for enactment of significant climate...

CEQ Plans NEPA Program Analyses To Streamline Low-Carbon Projects

A top White House official says the Biden administration is planning to review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) various federal programs as a way to help speed later review of related low-carbon projects, an effort aimed at easing the challenge officials face as they seek to expedite such projects while also ensuring rigorous reviews. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is looking at “ways that programmatic analysis can be used more frequently and effectively by federal...

House Approves Unprecedented Funding For Biden Climate Agenda

After months of intra-party debate, House Democrats have approved a roughly $1.75 trillion budget “reconciliation” package with over $550 billion in climate-related measures, bringing a major portion of the Biden climate agenda closer to enactment as the administration strives to cement global leadership on the issue. Yet, the House’s 220-213 vote on Nov. 19 to advance H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act, focuses debate on the Senate, which is all but certain to change at least some aspects of...

Biden Touts BIF’s Climate Benefits But Seeks More In Reconciliation Plan

President Joe Biden says the climate provisions of the recently approved $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIF) will mark a “big step” in funding his climate programs and addressing the “climate crisis” but he is urging Democrats to quickly approve stalled reconciliation legislation that will provide even more robust provisions. The BIF is “going to make significant, historic strides to take on the climate crisis,” Biden said in White House remarks Nov. 6 after the House Nov. 5 sent the...

White House Pitches Budget ‘Framework’ With $555 Billion For Climate

President Joe Biden is pitching Hill Democrats on a “framework” for a sweeping budget package that calls for $555 billion in spending toward various climate- and environment-related programs, a move the White House says would represent a historic effort to combat global warming. In an Oct. 28 press release , the White House says Biden “is confident this is a framework that can pass both houses of Congress, and he looks forward to signing it into law.” The president was...

Citing Glasgow Talks, Senate Progressives Demand ‘Robust’ Climate Bill

Progressive senators are pressing Democratic leaders and the White House to hold firm on “robust spending” to address climate change in emerging budget “reconciliation” legislation, even as they signal room for negotiations by offering broad outlines for necessary policies. Further, the lawmakers are pushing to strike a deal by the end of this month, to allow President Joe Biden to head to the Nov. 1-12 international climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, armed with ambitious climate policies that can be used...

CEQ’s NEPA Proposal Returns Climate Impacts To Forefront Of Analyses

A new proposal by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) that floats three core changes for how agencies implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) means that climate considerations will return to the forefront and reverse Trump officials’ efforts to limit such considerations, sources say. The proposed rule will be published in the Oct. 7 Federal Register , kicking off a 45-day public comment period. It outlines changes to several important aspects of the NEPA implementing regulations, which...

Amid Climate Debate, Senate Democrats Target House Mining Royalties

Democrats on the Senate energy committee are calling for a major overhaul, if not outright removal, of first-time hardrock mining royalties included in House budget “reconciliation” legislation, opening a new line of debate on options to secure various “critical minerals” needed for various low-carbon energy technologies. “I oppose the reform proposal that was put forward in the House of Representatives,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) at an Oct. 5 hearing of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, referring...

Environmentalists welcome PennEast cancellation over climate effects

Environmentalists are welcoming the announcement from the PennEast Pipeline Company that it is canceling plans to continue building its controversial natural gas pipeline in the Mid-Atlantic despite a precedent-setting Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that allowed the private developer to take state land to construct the project. “The decision to put the pipeline on hold reflects what we already know: that the PennEast Pipeline has no place in the Delaware River Basin or anywhere else. Once operational, the pipeline...

Democrats tussle over climate policies as infrastructure vote slips

House Democrats continue to struggle with the scope and cost of climate and other provisions for reconciliation legislation after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced plans for a Sept. 30 vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Pelosi’s delay of the infrastructure vote from a prior Sept. 27 goal gives Democrats more time to agree on a budget reconciliation plan with numerous climate change provisions. Pelosi announced the new timeline in a Sept. 26 dear colleague letter along with the planned...

FERC’s Glick Links Texas Blackouts Report To Climate Resilience Effort

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff are calling for new reliability standards in a preliminary report on February’s widespread blackouts in Texas and throughout central portions of the country caused by severe storms, with FERC Chairman Richard Glick saying the issue is “directly related” to the commission’s climate resilience work. “We need to reassess how we consider what reliability really is in the face of the changing climate,” Glick told reporters following FERC’s Sept. 23 public meeting where the report...

Rhodium Study Says Hill Proposals Close ‘Gap’ For Biden Climate Goals

New analysis is finding that key initiatives in the House Democrats’ emerging “reconciliation” bill, and a separate bipartisan infrastructure package approved by the Senate last month, could accomplish at least half the greenhouse gas cuts needed to close the gap between current policies and actions required to meet the Biden administration’s 2030 climate goals. The Sept. 15 findings from the Rhodium Group underscore that congressional action on climate change will have a significant, and perhaps make-or-break, impact on the ability...

House Panel Action Ups Capitol Hill Stakes For Clean Electricity Plan

A House panel’s sign off on a $150 billion Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), in tandem with other clean-energy investments including for electric vehicles (EVs) and manufacturing facilities, raises the stakes on whether Senate and House Democrats can agree in the coming days on a major center piece of the Biden climate agenda. The question looms in the wake of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Sept. 14 approval of an energy title that includes the CEPP, which combines an...

Schumer Says Most Of Biden’s GHG Pledge To Come From Reconciliation

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is circulating an analysis that shows nearly two-thirds of greenhouse gas reductions needed to achieve the Biden administration’s pledge under the Paris climate agreement will come from reconciliation legislation being developed by Democrats over the next few weeks. The findings signal that EPA, other federal agencies, and states would face less of a burden in contributing toward the administration’s climate targets via regulation and other policies than if the pending bill were to fail,...

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