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By US Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
Pairing Republican and Democratic Nominees Consistent with Commission’s Long-Standing Tradition of Bipartisanship
Washington, D.C. – Today (March 8), Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and 15 other Democrats wrote President Trump regarding several openings on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that are preventing the commission from fully functioning.
By US Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
Pairing Republican and Democratic Nominees Consistent with Commission’s Long-Standing Tradition of Bipartisanship
Washington, D.C. – Today (March 8), Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and 15 other Democrats wrote President Trump regarding several openings on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that are preventing the commission from fully functioning.
FERC has a long tradition of bipartisanship; most votes within the commission are unanimous. In 2016, less than two percent of the orders issued included a dissenting opinion. The senators said: “We hope that your nominees will be prepared to continue this tradition, and we intend to review them through that lens during the confirmation process.”
In addition to the three vacant commission seats, a fourth seat currently held by Commissioner Colette Honorable is scheduled to expire on June 30. By law, not more than three members of FERC may be members of the same political party. Historically, both Republican and Democratic presidents have nominated people recommended by the Senate leader of the party that does not hold the presidency. “We expect you will honor this long-standing practice in nominating individuals to serve on the commission,” the senators write.
FERC lost its quorum on February 3 when Commissioner Norman Bay resigned after President Trump replaced him as chair. Bay had told the president’s transition team that he would resign when the president named a new chair of the commission. A quorum of at least three commissioners is required before decisions that require a vote of the commissioners can be issued.
EPA watchdog to review emissions testing checks after VW case
By David Shepardson, Reuters.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency watchdog plans to review whether the agency's internal controls are effective at detecting vehicle emissions fraud, the EPA's Office of Inspector General said.
In a memo dated Monday, the inspector general said it will "begin preliminary research to determine whether the EPA’s existing internal controls are effective at detecting and preventing" light- and heavy-duty vehicle emissions fraud.
By David Shepardson, Reuters.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency watchdog plans to review whether the agency's internal controls are effective at detecting vehicle emissions fraud, the EPA's Office of Inspector General said.
In a memo dated Monday, the inspector general said it will "begin preliminary research to determine whether the EPA’s existing internal controls are effective at detecting and preventing" light- and heavy-duty vehicle emissions fraud.
In September 2015, the EPA said it would review all U.S. diesel vehicles following an admission from Volkswagen that it installed software in 580,000 vehicles allowing them to emit up to 40 times the legally permissible level of pollution.
That extensive review prompted a delay in certification of some new diesel models last year.
VW sold vehicles with excess emissions for more than six years without EPA detecting the illegal software. VW, which is set to plead guilty on Friday as part of a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors, has agreed to offer to buy back about 500,000 vehicles and agreed to spend up to $25 billion in the United States to address claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers.
US cities plan to move forward on battling climate change, no matter what Trump does
By Brooks Rainwater, Contributor, Business Insider.
Cities are centers for environmental leadership. Mayors throughout the country, regardless of party, champion climate mitigation solutions. We all need clean air and clean water, and it is not just a local problem, but one that is reliant on leadership at all levels.
As the nation recently tuned in for the President’s address to a joint session of Congress, city leaders looked for leadership on critical issues facing their communities.
By Brooks Rainwater, Contributor, Business Insider.
Cities are centers for environmental leadership. Mayors throughout the country, regardless of party, champion climate mitigation solutions. We all need clean air and clean water, and it is not just a local problem, but one that is reliant on leadership at all levels.
As the nation recently tuned in for the President’s address to a joint session of Congress, city leaders looked for leadership on critical issues facing their communities.
Instead of providing specific solutions, President Trump singled out great American cities — including Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago — to illustrate his views on public safety and economic opportunity. What we didn’t hear, however, was how those issues coincide directly with the continued need for resilient, energy efficient, and innovative communities.
As drastic shifts in climate continue to arise at an alarming rate around the globe, we can't pretend that this is a time where binary choices are still on the table. Ice sheets are shrinking, oceans are warming, and we have seen 15 of the 16 warmest years on record happening since 2001. It is imperative to do all we can to support — not degrade – the necessary global effort to alleviate challenges brought on by these changes.
However, there have been multiple reports that appear to point us in the wrong direction, including reports that speculate on cuts to the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), and even pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement . While the new administration has not firmly stated its views on the future of these critical departments and whether it will ultimately invalidate the climate agreement, these moves would lead to a perilous future.
House GOP Targets Purported EPA Use of 'Secret Science'
By Timothy Cama, The Hill.
House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is once again going after what he see as the use of "secret science" in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulemaking.
Smith introduced the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act (HONEST Act) Monday, the latest iteration of his proposal to reform how the EPA uses science.
Xebec Receives Multiple Hydrogen and Renewable Natural Gas Purification Orders Worth CDN 2.6 Million
Via SAT PR News.
MONTREAL, (QC) / TheNewswire / March 6, 2017 – Xebec Adsorption Inc. (TSXV: XBC) („Xebec”), a global provider of gas generation, purification and filtration solutions for the industrial, energy and renewables marketplace, announced today that it has received orders for CDN 2.6 million for multiple purification systems. Orders originate from Taiwan, France and Canada, all to be delivered in 2017.
Grant for Biogas Feasibility Study Awarded to DeKalb
By The Brookhaven Post.
DeKalb County, GA, March 6, 2017 – The Post Reports – The DeKalb County Department of Watershed Management (DWM), CEO Michael Thurmond and Commissioners accepted a $25,000 grant from Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) during their February 28th meeting. The award will fund a biogas generator feasibility study at the Pole Bridge Wastewater Treatment Plant, according to a County release.
Some Foresee a Coming Clean-Air War Between Trump and California
By Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic.
In the weeks after the election of Donald Trump, friends and journalists called Deborah Sivas with roughly the same question: How bad could things get?
Sivas is a professor of environmental law at Stanford University, and she has decades of experience working as a litigator for environmental-rights groups. She knows how hostile new presidents can overturn green protections and she knows how lawsuits from friendly states and nonprofits can shore up those rules.
So when reporters asked about the fate of signature Obama-era issues—the Clean Power Plan, the Paris Agreement, the Dakota Access pipeline—she replied that they should focus on an issue with less name recognition. It seemed likely, she said, that the Trump administration and its allies in the car industry would attack California’s ability to regulate greenhouse-gas pollution from car tailpipes.
By Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic.
In the weeks after the election of Donald Trump, friends and journalists called Deborah Sivas with roughly the same question: How bad could things get?
Sivas is a professor of environmental law at Stanford University, and she has decades of experience working as a litigator for environmental-rights groups. She knows how hostile new presidents can overturn green protections and she knows how lawsuits from friendly states and nonprofits can shore up those rules.
So when reporters asked about the fate of signature Obama-era issues—the Clean Power Plan, the Paris Agreement, the Dakota Access pipeline—she replied that they should focus on an issue with less name recognition. It seemed likely, she said, that the Trump administration and its allies in the car industry would attack California’s ability to regulate greenhouse-gas pollution from car tailpipes.
This may sound niche. But if Trump revoked the special federal waiver that gives California this power, it could hinder the ability of the United States to address climate change for decades to come, she said.
It now appears that her instincts were correct. On Saturday, The New York Timesreported that Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was exploring how to withdraw this waiver from California. The announcement could come later this week, when the Trump administration begins to roll back nationwide regulations on pollution from car tailpipes.
“We hear a lot about Paris and the Clean Power Plan, but this [waiver] is a big part of it too,” Sivas told me. “These were the years—2017 and going forward—when the curve was supposed to bend a lot on car emissions.”
The probable withdrawal has so far avoided attracting significant activist attention, perhaps because the idea of the waiver is difficult to explain or because at first glance it appears to be a local issue affecting only Californians.
Twin Challenges to LCFS Advance in California Courts, With Potential Implications for State’s Overall Climate Stabilization Strategy
By Latham & Watkins LLP.
Two related cases, advancing in parallel, have the potential to upend California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), whether via full suspension of the LCFS or carving out diesel fuels from the deficit and crediting regime.[1]
Both cases involve challenges by POET, LLC (POET), a South Dakota-based ethanol producer, against the LCFS rules adopted by the California Air Resources Board (ARB). ARB first adopted LCFS rules in 2009 and amended them in 2011, but these rules successfully were challenged by POET, leading the California Court of Appeal for the Fifth Appellate District (Court of Appeal) on July 15, 2013, to find deficiencies in ARB’s California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review process. The Court of Appeal issued a peremptory writ of mandate (Writ) in this case (POET I), requiring ARB to remedy legal defects in the initial adoption of the regulation, but opting to leave the LCFS in place while ARB reworked its analysis and repeated the necessary procedural steps and substantive analysis. Over the next two years, ARB reviewed and revised the LCFS, before re-adopting the regulation on September 25, 2015. Shortly thereafter, on October 30, 2015, POET once again brought suit in Fresno County Superior Court (Superior Court) to challenge the re-adopted regulations (POET II), arguing that ARB both failed to comply with the Writ issued in POET I and that it violated CEQA, the California Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and the Health & Safety Code.
By Latham & Watkins LLP.
Two related cases, advancing in parallel, have the potential to upend California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), whether via full suspension of the LCFS or carving out diesel fuels from the deficit and crediting regime.[1]
Both cases involve challenges by POET, LLC (POET), a South Dakota-based ethanol producer, against the LCFS rules adopted by the California Air Resources Board (ARB). ARB first adopted LCFS rules in 2009 and amended them in 2011, but these rules successfully were challenged by POET, leading the California Court of Appeal for the Fifth Appellate District (Court of Appeal) on July 15, 2013, to find deficiencies in ARB’s California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review process. The Court of Appeal issued a peremptory writ of mandate (Writ) in this case (POET I), requiring ARB to remedy legal defects in the initial adoption of the regulation, but opting to leave the LCFS in place while ARB reworked its analysis and repeated the necessary procedural steps and substantive analysis. Over the next two years, ARB reviewed and revised the LCFS, before re-adopting the regulation on September 25, 2015. Shortly thereafter, on October 30, 2015, POET once again brought suit in Fresno County Superior Court (Superior Court) to challenge the re-adopted regulations (POET II), arguing that ARB both failed to comply with the Writ issued in POET I and that it violated CEQA, the California Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and the Health & Safety Code.
Upon re-adoption of the LCFS, the Superior Court in POET I issued an order discharging the Writ on January 5, 2016. POET filed a motion to stay that order on February 5, 2015, which was denied by the Superior Court on February 25, 2016. POET challenged the Superior Court’s discharge of the Writ in POET I as improper because ARB allegedly had not strictly complied with its terms. POET argued, among other things, that ARB had failed to comply with the Writ by declining to analyze or mitigate nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions caused by the original LCFS, opting instead to include those emissions in the CEQA baseline for the re-adopted LCFS, which ARB deemed to be a new regulation distinct from its predecessor. On March 9, 2016, POET appealed the discharge of the Writ to the Court of Appeal and on March 14, 2016, POET filed a writ of supersedeas seeking the extraordinary relief of staying the Superior Court’s order that discharged the Writ. On March 23, 2016, the Court of Appeal denied POET’s writ of supersedeas, but the appeal otherwise proceeded. As the outcome of POET I could impact POET II, the parties stipulated on February 22, 2017 that the Superior Court hearing on the merits of the POET II claims will be postponed until July 26, 2017. Meanwhile, the POET I case is advancing in the Court of Appeal, with oral argument scheduled for March 23, 2017.
White House Debates Icahn Plan Revamping Ethanol Rule
By Jennifer A Dlouhy, Bloomberg Markets.
White House officials have spent the past two days in deliberations with billionaire refinery owner Carl Icahn about his proposal to modify federal policy on renewable fuels and with ethanol producers who oppose it, according to three people familiar with the talks.
The flurry of meetings and phone calls came after Bloomberg News reported Monday that Icahn had helped broker a compromise with a leading biofuel group on reworking the program. The report led to a surge of more than $100 million in the value of Icahn’s refinery investments.
By Jennifer A Dlouhy, Bloomberg Markets.
White House officials have spent the past two days in deliberations with billionaire refinery owner Carl Icahn about his proposal to modify federal policy on renewable fuels and with ethanol producers who oppose it, according to three people familiar with the talks.
The flurry of meetings and phone calls came after Bloomberg News reported Monday that Icahn had helped broker a compromise with a leading biofuel group on reworking the program. The report led to a surge of more than $100 million in the value of Icahn’s refinery investments.
Icahn, who is also an unpaid adviser on regulations to President Donald Trump, predicted the modifications he is seeking would be made soon. He described it as "a matter of extreme urgency" that must be addressed "to avoid potential bankruptcies."
This "is the quintessential example of the type of insane regulations throttling our economy that Donald Trump said all throughout his campaign he wanted to see changed," Icahn said in an email to Bloomberg. "It is within the White House’s power to move quickly on this issue."
Senior administration officials spoke with Icahn at length about his plan on Tuesday and held in-person meetings Wednesday with representatives of the Fuels America coalition of biofuel producers that opposes the proposed restructuring. Representatives of the American Petroleum Institute, which is lobbying against changes, also discussed the issue with White House and Environmental Protection Agency officials.
Oil, biofuels groups urge U.S. EPA deny refiner requests to tweak RFS program
By Chris Prentice, Reuters.
A coalition of trade groups representing oil, biofuels and other interests pressed the U.S. government on Thursday to deny requests to tweak the country's biofuels program, the latest in a series of political maneuvers that have roiled markets.
Some 15 trade groups including the American Petroleum Institute (API), Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Association of American Railroads wrote a letter urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new chief Scott Pruitt to deny requests to tweak the program. Those requests came from groups including Valero Energy Corp and Delta Air Lines Inc's Monroe Energy LLC.
By Chris Prentice, Reuters.
A coalition of trade groups representing oil, biofuels and other interests pressed the U.S. government on Thursday to deny requests to tweak the country's biofuels program, the latest in a series of political maneuvers that have roiled markets.
Some 15 trade groups including the American Petroleum Institute (API), Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Association of American Railroads wrote a letter urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new chief Scott Pruitt to deny requests to tweak the program. Those requests came from groups including Valero Energy Corp and Delta Air Lines Inc's Monroe Energy LLC.
Some industry groups have been concerned that the Trump administration may be reviewing potential changes in the program to shift the onus of blending biofuels into gasoline away from refiners further down the supply chain to gasoline marketers.
The change could require companies such as retailers who sell gasoline to shoulder that load, which would provide relief to refiners including Valero and CVR Energy Inc. The change is opposed by biofuels companies and integrated oil companies, which say it will complicate the program.
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