The American Petroleum Institute (API) is urging EPA to “leverage” natural gas in its proposed replacement greenhouse gas rule for new coal plants -- pitting “clean, reliable, and affordable natural gas” against coal, which the plan seeks to bolster by easing standards for new plants, even though no new coal plants are being planned.
Conservative and free-market groups that have long urged EPA to repeal its finding that greenhouse gases are a public endangerment -- because they say that is the only way to prevent the agency from having to regulate GHGs -- are backing away from that stance and now say it may be good enough for EPA to not strictly enforce the finding.
State water regulators are threatening a “vast increase” in the number of federal permits for pipelines and other projects they plan to block under section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) in response to a recent Army Corps of Engineers memo directing that Corps' district officials limit states’ reviews under the law to 60 days in most cases.
Having failed to receive a response from EPA, House Democrats are reiterating an oversight request they made on several major climate rollbacks nearly three months ago.
Environmentalists are suing EPA over its refusal to require battery storage as the best available control technology (BACT) for reducing emissions at a gas-fired power plant.
Progressive lawmakers are formally launching a long political push to enact a “Green New Deal,” (GND) with backers of the effort projecting unity among left-leaning groups by combining an aggressive push for “zero-emissions” energy with calls to reverse a slide in the fortunes of blue-collar workers.
Some lawmakers on the Senate energy committee are tentatively embracing calls from outside experts to adopt a centrist climate change agenda that recognizes the need for government action to reduce greenhouse gases while incorporating a wide range of low-carbon technologies, including some that progressive groups find objectionable.
Trump administration officials had previously hoped to finish the narrow replacement to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan by March, though work was delayed during the month-long government shutdown.
Environmental groups are seeking to persuade a key appellate court to re-confirm its landmark 2017 ruling requiring the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to consider upstream and downstream greenhouse gas impacts of natural gas pipeline projects, though FERC is trying to limit the precedent by arguing such reviews are unnecessary if the end users of the gas are not known.
The federal appeals court has granted the Army Corps of Engineers' request to remand and vacate the use of Clean Water Act general permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
