ISSUE: Climate Extra

UN, Experts See Globe ‘Very Likely’ To Warm Well Above 2 Degree Target

Updated projections from the United Nations and other experts are finding that the world is "very likely" poised to exceed the long-established climate target of restricting warming to 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century -- offering a worrisome backdrop for policymakers ahead of next week's international climate summit in Brazil. This year’s U.N. Environment Program “gap report,” which officials will release Nov. 4, sees limited progress with regard to global warming projections as compared to last year...

DOE Seeks Proposals For $100 Million In Coal Power Plant Retrofit Projects

The Department of Energy (DOE) is soliciting applications for up to $100 million to support retrofits of existing coal-fired power generation -- including upgrades to enable fuel switching or co-firing with gas -- as part of Trump officials’ broader pledges to “expand and reinvigorate” the coal sector. The Oct. 31 announcement of a notice of funding opportunity formally titled “ Improving Efficiency, Reliability and Flexibility of Coal Based Power Plants ” underscores the Trump administration’s continuing pivot away from renewables...

EPA’s Repeal Proposal Sparks Fears Of Costly GHG Reporting ‘Patchwork’

Technology and other groups are warning that EPA’s proposal to gut its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) could raise costs to businesses due to the likely need to implement ramped up voluntary or state-based reporting programs, while also jeopardizing the competitiveness of U.S. exports. The concerns surface in formal comments to the agency filed by a Nov. 3 deadline, including warnings that scuttling GHG reporting mandates could spur a proliferation of state reporting programs and hamper data availability critical to...

Despite ‘Headwinds’, Advocates Say Climate Talks Show Continued Effort

Ahead of this year’s international climate negotiations -- which face mounting geopolitical challenges, including a rebuke from Trump administration officials -- some observers are nonetheless projecting optimism about the ongoing global commitment to implementing the Paris Agreement and striving to achieve its goals. “If we come out of COP30 demonstrating that the Paris Agreement is alive and functioning, I think in the current context, that is pretty newsworthy [in and] of itself,” said Kaveh Guilanpour, international climate chief with the...

Groups Oppose Court Ruling Against New York Climate Superfund Law

Environmental groups are backing New York’s calls for a federal court to deny the Trump administration’s push to quickly block the state’s climate “superfund” law that requires fossil fuel companies to pay the state damages in compensation for climate change-linked natural disasters. Trump officials “allege that the [New York law] intrudes into exclusively federal affairs, but their arguments rest on misguided assumptions and lack evidentiary support,” the groups say in an amicus brief in United States of America v....

Reprising Massachusetts, States May Face Standing Test In GHG Risk Suit

Upcoming litigation over EPA’s planned repeal of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding will test states’ standing to sue over climate measures, warns the head of an academic group working with states to promote strong environmental policies, potentially reprising arguments in the Supreme Court’s Massachusetts v. EPA case. In the 2007 decision in Massachusetts , which directed EPA to consider regulating GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act for the first time, the high court also concluded Massachusetts had standing...

Groups Tout Improved Carbon Border Accounting Amid Doubts Over Trump

Two energy policy groups are endorsing a greenhouse gas accounting method they argue would help enable implementation by industry of carbon border or other “carbon management” policies, even as backers of such efforts acknowledge the Trump administration remains resistant to embracing such carbon policies despite global pressure to do so. Such a disconnect risks leaving the U.S. on the sidelines of developing the contours of these carbon policies, to its economic detriment, says one carbon pricing proponent who argues that...

CARB Unveils Rule Concepts To Implement New Cap & Invest Program Laws

California Air Resources Board (CARB) officials are floating regulatory concepts to implement two new laws overhauling the state’s greenhouse gas cap-and-invest program, including by reducing GHG allowances given for free to regulated sectors and mitigating emissions leakage -- while also broadly considering “affordability” effects. “Reduced federal efforts to address GHG emissions or to provide financial support for decarbonization underscores the need for California leadership in reducing GHG emissions while considering affordability and minimizing emissions leakage,” states a CARB staff presentation...

Officials Optimistic That State, Local Policy Can Approach Biden GHG Goal

New analysis suggests state and local governments, paired with a renewed federal commitment to climate efforts after the Trump term ends, could still nudge the U.S. toward major greenhouse gas cuts that might even approach a Biden-era Paris target that Trump officials are seeking to undermine. An Oct. 28 report from America Is All In, a coalition of state and local officials dedicated to advancing climate policy, and the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability finds it possible to...

Attorney Sees ‘Headwinds’ For State Climate Policies Amid Trump Assault

A lawyer who has represented low-emitting power generators says federal officials are creating new headwinds for state climate policies that did not exist during the first Trump administration, with Trump officials now striving to ensure that neither states nor the federal government can advance policies to limit greenhouse gases. “You might remember back in [the first Trump administration] it was, ‘We’re still in. The states are going to carry forward. We’re going to keep moving forward, regardless of what happens...

California Charges Truck Makers With Breaching Pact To Lower Emissions

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is suing four major truck manufacturers in state court for allegedly breaching their commitments to reduce emissions under the board’s 2023 Clean Truck Partnership (CTP), even as the same truck makers are suing the board in federal court to overturn the CTP. “This action reflects CARB’s commitment to ensure that agreements with industry are not only meaningful, but that parties making agreements follow through and California gets the benefits of its bargain, which protects...

EV Group Objects To Pausing Suit Over Not Enforcing Fuel Economy Limits

The electric vehicle (EV) sector is opposing any move to pause its lawsuit over the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) decision to stop enforcing fuel economy standards while the agency revises them, citing immediate and ongoing harm to companies in the sector. The objection in an Oct, 27 filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit comes amid a broader legal fight over NHTSA’s “interpretive” rule declaring that Biden officials erred in their treatment of EVs...

EPA, Truck Makers Ask Court To Deny CARB Bid To Dismiss Suit Over Rules

EPA and truck manufacturers are asking a federal court to deny the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) bid to dismiss portions of industry’s and EPA’s challenge to the board’s 2023 Clean Truck Partnership (CTP) and several emission rules, arguing those measures pose ongoing injury to federal government sovereignty and businesses. “It is well settled that the United States’ sovereign interests are harmed when its laws are violated and when any state usurps the United States’ exclusive authority to regulate,” EPA...

UN Report Seeks To Speed Action On Climate Goals Ahead Of Belém Talks

The United Nations climate office is seeking to hike pressure on countries to commit to additional climate mitigation and adaptation steps ahead of this year’s international climate meeting in Belém, Brazil, finding that nations are not moving quickly enough to limit greenhouse gas emissions to meet global temperature targets. Countries “are bending their combined emission curve further downward, but still not quickly enough,” says an Oct. 28 “synthesis report ” of the combined effect of tougher national climate targets. Countries...

Observers Say Major Developing Countries May Fill U.S. Climate ‘Vacuum’

As Trump administration officials continue to slam other nations’ climate mitigation efforts, arguing such steps will harm reliable and affordable energy sources, some environmentalists are hoping that major developing countries will take the United States’ place as a key leader at this year’s international climate talks in Brazil. “There’s a global vacuum for climate leadership right now,” said World Resources Institute (WRI) President Ani Dasgupta on an Oct. 27 press call, just two weeks before the start of the climate...

DOE Presses FERC For New Rule To Manage Data Center Power Demand

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is pressing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to launch a rulemaking to speed the connection of data centers and other large electricity demand sources to the power grid, including a push winning bipartisan praise to prioritize facilities that agree to be flexible in their demand. The call in an Oct. 24 letter to FERC underscores efforts by policymakers to grapple with rising power needs from artificial intelligence (AI), including concerns about how to meet those...

ExxonMobil Suit Against California Climate Laws Targets CARB Protocols

ExxonMobil’s new First Amendment lawsuit challenging California’s laws requiring large companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks is targeting an existing state GHG reporting protocol, the required use of a specific reporting framework, and the state air board’s recently released reporting templates. ExxonMobil “has voiced disagreement with numerous aspects of the GHG Protocol. Starting in 2026, S.B. 253 will compel ExxonMobil to supplement its speech with information ExxonMobil believes will, at best, be unnecessary and counterproductive,”...

Former Officials Doubt EPA Can Preserve Preemption Without GHG Finding

Two former Biden administration officials are asserting that courts will not allow EPA to simultaneously argue it lacks a legal basis to regulate greenhouse gases, but that the Clean Air Act would still preempt both common law climate suits and state vehicle emissions programs. The critiques underscore a debate over whether EPA’s high-stakes push to undo its GHG endangerment finding and related vehicle GHG rules could open new paths to advancing climate nuisance claims and state vehicle emissions limits --...

Google’s Gas Plant With CCS Offers ‘Milestone,’ Amid Federal Uncertainty

Technology giant Google is inking a major power purchase agreement with a planned natural gas power plant paired with carbon capture and storage (CCS), a move that observers say could be a key milestone for the technology amid waning federal support. Google in an Oct. 23 announcement says it is “excited to announce a first-of-its kind corporate agreement to support a gas power plant with CCS.” The company says it will buy most of the electricity generated by Broadwing Energy,...

Louisiana’s Pause On New CCS Permits May Signal Hurdles For Other States

Louisiana officials are halting review of new carbon storage permits to focus on those already in the queue, amid a flood of permit requests and local community pushback -- in a move that one observer says should serve as a warning to other states seeking primacy from EPA to issue such Class VI permits for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. “All of the dialogue has been . . . ‘primacy is going to mean we’re going to get faster...

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