Manufacturing - Climate Extra

HFC Manufacturer Asks Full D.C. Circuit To Reconsider Nondelegation Claim

A hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) manufacturer is asking the full D.C. Circuit to rehear its claim that Congress illegally delegated legislative authority to EPA in the 2020 HFC control law, detailing what it sees as faults of a unanimous panel decision that found no constitutional violations in the law’s HFC phasedown program. RMS of Georgia, also known as Choice Refrigerants, writes in a Sept. 15 petition that the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act “instructs an agency to dictate who may continue...

EPA Allows Arizona To Take Over CO2 Storage, Other Injection Well Permits

EPA is finalizing its approval for Arizona to directly issue Underground Injection Control (UIC) permits for all types of wells, including Class VI wells needed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) that have been a key policy focus in recent years for backers of the climate change mitigation technology. While the Grand Canyon State does not currently have any pending permits immediately affected by the move, state officials and others say the move paves the way for future CCS development...

CARB’s CCUS Rule Input Request Might Further Delay Effort, Projects

A new request for stakeholder input by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) regarding its slowly developing proposal to establish a landmark regulatory program for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) projects may heighten existing fears among industry and others that the initiative will only be further delayed. CARB on Aug. 25 issued an “information solicitation” to “advise implementation of the Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization, and Storage Program,” which is required by the 2022 law SB 905. “This pre-rulemaking solicitation...

Zeldin Highlights Effort To Ease End-Use HFC Rule For Cold Storage, Others

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is providing some details about the agency’s forthcoming proposal to ease Biden-era restrictions on climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) for various end uses, suggesting the plan will soften requirements for equipment at grocery stores, semiconductor plants, cold storage warehouses and other sectors. “The [2023] Technology Transitions Rule raises the cost of food at the grocery store, harms semiconductor manufacturing, and restricts Americans from being able to purchase affordable air conditioning systems for their homes,” says an Aug. 21...

Groups Voice Oversight Worry As Texas Poised To Get CO2 Permit Power

Community groups are expressing concerns that a Texas agency will soon receive primary permitting authority over carbon storage wells needed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the state, even as environmentalists acknowledge the state has met the necessary legal requirements for EPA to grant such authority. Meanwhile, oil and gas groups are supporting EPA’s plan to grant “Class VI” primacy to the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency known as the Railroad Commission (RRC). Backers say it would allow...

California Struggles To Advance Hydrogen Plan Amid Cost, Demand Hurdles

California officials appear to be struggling to transform low-carbon hydrogen into a key piece of the state’s decarbonization efforts due to weighty challenges including high costs and uncertain demand, with some beginning to question whether to maintain current plans to aggressively pursue the energy source. “Sometimes it’s easy to write reports that give a roadmap on meeting state goals . . . but I find myself more and more saying we also need to have a realistic assessment of different...

D.C. Circuit Denies Claim That HFC Law Violates Nondelegation Doctrine

A unanimous three-judge D.C. Circuit panel is rejecting a constitutional challenge to the 2020 law requiring EPA to phase down climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), concluding that the statute does not delegate legislative authority to the agency as a free-market legal group has argued. The court also disagrees with the New Civil Liberties Alliance lawyers representing HFC manufacturer Choice Refrigerants that a recent Supreme Court decision helps their case -- instead emphasizing that the high court has said Congress need not provide...

Inspector General Finds EPA Lags In Issuing Carbon Storage Wells Permits

EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) says the agency is far behind schedule in issuing “Class VI” permits for carbon storage wells needed for carbon capture and storage projects (CCS), finding that nearly 67 percent of permit applications expected to be finalized last year took longer than the agency’s self-imposed two-year deadline. In a July 28 report , “Evaluation of EPA’s Implementation of the Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI Well Program,” the OIG sought to determine if EPA had...

Free-Market Group Says High Court Ruling Boosts HFC Non-Delegation Case

Free-market attorneys representing a refrigerant maker are highlighting a recent Supreme Court ruling they believe supports their claim that Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine in a 2020 statute directing EPA to phase down climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Choice Refrigerants, in litigation pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, argues that the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act did not provide enough direction to EPA about how it must allocate a decreasing number of HFC allowances...

Researchers Promote New CO2 Storage Option Amid Mixed Policy Outlook

Researchers are touting the use of a new technology that aims to ensure captured carbon dioxide remains stable when stored underground, a development that could bolster the broader carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) sector even as the industry is receiving mixed policy support during the Trump administration. The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), an independent research nonprofit, says in a June 23 announcement that it and the University of Texas at Austin are developing “foam-entrapped supercritical carbon dioxide” (sCO2), to...

EPA Proposes To Give Texas CO2 Well Permit Authority, Speeding CCS Plans

EPA is proposing to grant Texas primary authority to permit carbon storage wells needed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, a potential boon to the sector even as the Trump administration is also canceling federal funds intended to advance the burgeoning technology. Granting the Lone Star State permitting “primacy” could lead to quicker approvals of dozens of projects, given that a third of the 175 carbon storage permit requests currently under review at EPA are located in Texas. The...

Environmentalists Ask States To Electrify Industrial Boilers To Cut Emissions

Environmental groups are urging states to pursue clean energy policies focused on reducing carbon dioxide and conventional air emissions from industrial boilers that burn fossil fuels, using electrification to reduce pollution from a sector that to date has garnered less attention than power plants or vehicles. In a May 28 report , “Embracing Clean Heat,” the groups Evergreen Collaborative and Sierra Club tout industrial boilers as an overlooked potential source of greenhouse gas and conventional air pollution reductions. But amid...

5th Circuit Rejects Challenge To Louisiana CO2 Permit Rule On Standing

The 5th Circuit is dismissing environmental justice (EJ) groups’ suit over EPA’s rule granting Louisiana primary authority over Class VI carbon storage well permits, finding the groups failed to establish standing to sue -- potentially making it more difficult for other groups to challenge EPA’s future approvals of state permitting programs. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit says in a May 21 ruling in Deep South Center for Environmental Justice v. EPA...

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...

Advocates May Raise Trump EJ Changes In Carbon Storage Primacy Case

Environmental groups in litigation over EPA’s rule allowing West Virginia to directly permit carbon storage wells might raise arguments concerning the Trump administration’s late-hour decision to scrap the rule’s environmental justice (EJ) provisions, as well as concerns with how the state addresses long-term liability and pore space ownership. “EPA impermissibly modified” the regulation, an environmentalist coalition writes in an April 22 docketing statement in a West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization v. Lee Zeldin before the U.S. Court of...

Industries Fault CARB Draft Reporting Rule To Cut Building Material GHGs

Building industry groups are faulting a key piece of a California Air Resources Board (CARB) proposed rule to measure and reduce “embodied carbon” (EC) and other greenhouse gases from building materials used in the state, faulting the plan’s “granular” requirements for manufacturer and project-level data reporting. The rule would implement a 2022 law that broadly seeks a 40 percent cut in building materials’ EC, though industry says the proposed reporting requirements are infeasible. “CARB’s proposal to require quarterly revenue and...

Groups Challenge EPA Rule Allowing West Virginia To Permit CO2 Wells

Environmentalists are asking a federal court to scrap EPA’s rule granting West Virginia primary authority over carbon storage well permitting in the state, charging the state’s program is not as protective as federal rules in part because of state laws addressing pore space ownership and liability after a storage site’s closure. On April 11, the Sierra Club and several West Virginia-based groups petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to review EPA’s rule granting West Virginia “primacy”...

GOP Senators Update Foreign GHG Bill With New Products, Initial Levies

Senate Republicans’ updated bill to impose a foreign carbon pollution fee on imports is expanding the number of sectors covered by the program compared with a December draft measure, while also proposing initial country-specific fees that would apply in advance of a rulemaking to refine the program. While the sponsors of the legislation -- Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) -- are touting support for the bill from an array of industry groups, the measure is drawing fresh...

Groups Recommend Priorities For CARB’s Landmark CCUS, CDR Rules

Groups are sparring about how the California Air Resources Board (CARB) should craft landmark regulations to deploy carbon capture, utilization or storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects, with some seeking a faster timeline and broader crediting for the projects while others are emphasizing precaution. “It is essential that CARB has adequate staffing and resources to move expeditiously to complete . . . Program implementation as this will ensure that California can maximize the role that critical [CCUS] technologies...

CARB Denies Intentionally Delaying Landmark CCUS, CDR Rule Framework

California Air Resources Board (CARB) officials are denying that they are intentionally delaying what is supposed to be a landmark regulatory framework to facilitate deployment of carbon capture, utilization or storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects, which is required by the 2022 law SB 905. “We absolutely as an agency want to move forward with the rulemaking process -- any assertions otherwise are factually incorrect,” Matt Botill, chief of CARB’s industrial strategies division, told lawmakers during a March...

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