Outlook 2023 - Climate

More States Embracing California’s Rules To Cut Industry, Vehicle GHGs

More states are copying California’s climate policies to reduce greenhouse gases from several sectors, including New York’s recent approval of a sweeping plan to cut emissions 85 percent by 2050 that envisions a cap-and-trade program, and others adopting zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) and low-carbon fuel rules. “Just yesterday, Oregon and Washington both adopted [California’s] Advanced Clean Cars II Rule, meaning all new car sales will be zero-emission by 2035,” states a Dec. 20 email alert by Climate Solutions, a clean energy...

Dueling Agendas For Climate-Related Investment Put Squeeze On Companies

Experts expect Republicans to intensify their attacks this year on environment-related finance approaches even as climate advocates continue calls for such steps as a prudent approach to limiting risks, with investment management firms and other companies caught between the competing agendas. “There will be a lot of efforts . . . to leverage the [environmental, social, governance (ESG)] backlash for political gain,” says Brian Israel, chairman of Arnold and Porter’s environmental practice group. That includes ESG-specific funds and investing practices,...

EPA Faces Crunch On Next Round Of GHG Standards For Cars, Trucks

EPA is facing a crunch this year to release multiple proposals targeting greenhouse gases and other emissions from cars and trucks after a year of significant external developments that have helped set the baseline for future regulatory action, including congressional enactment of new or revised tax credits for electric vehicles (EVs). The rulemakings loom even as litigation is ongoing over EPA’s current GHG standards for light-duty vehicles, as well as the agency’s decision last March to reinstate preemption waivers for...

Agencies, States Dial Up Electrification, Putting Gas Sector On Defense

The Biden administration is doubling down on efforts to electrify buildings and phase out natural gas appliances – including tougher efficiency rules for furnaces, new federal building codes, and health-based regulations targeting gas stoves – as the gas industry dials up advocacy against such efforts by seeking technology-neutral climate policies. “I’m very concerned that long-standing objectives such as the federal government’s role in improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are now becoming subordinate to the goal of banning...

Agencies’ Continued IRA Implementation Sparks Clean Energy Disputes

EPA, the Treasury Department, the Energy Department (DOE) and others are continuing to disperse the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) mammoth clean energy funding, reigniting various fights over the best approach to transitioning to a clean energy economy. The agencies’ IRA implementation includes releasing dozens of guidance documents and taking other steps to deploy a collection of clean energy tax incentives and grant programs, even as they continue to implement the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law’s (BIL) energy- and climate-related provisions. The...

Amid Signs Of Gridlock, GOP House To Boost Scrutiny Of Biden Efforts

Republicans’ takeover of the House is expected to pose new oversight challenges for Biden administration officials as they push to implement last year’s climate legislation and issue several high-profile EPA climate rules, while it is also dampening prospects for new environmental initiatives. But the GOP’s narrow House majority, as well as Democrats’ continued control of the Senate, has observers expecting that Republicans would fail in wholesale attacks on last year’s climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and...

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