RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Proposed EPA cuts punctuate hearing on Clean Air Act bill
By Sean Reilly, E&E News reporter
The official focus of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing yesterday was a revived Republican bill to rewrite key tenets of the Clean Air Act, but Democrats took it as an opportunity to pre-emptively question the potential impact of newly proposed budget cuts on U.S. EPA.
The administration's bare-bones spending blueprint for fiscal 2018, released last week and scheduled to be fleshed out later this spring, would slash EPA's budget by 31 percent (E&E Daily, March 16).
And yesterday's hearing on H.R. 806, the "Ozone Standards Implementation Act," offered clear evidence that spending issues are already bubbling up in the broader debate over federal environmental policy.
By Sean Reilly, E&E News reporter
The official focus of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing yesterday was a revived Republican bill to rewrite key tenets of the Clean Air Act, but Democrats took it as an opportunity to pre-emptively question the potential impact of newly proposed budget cuts on U.S. EPA.
The administration's bare-bones spending blueprint for fiscal 2018, released last week and scheduled to be fleshed out later this spring, would slash EPA's budget by 31 percent (E&E Daily, March 16).
And yesterday's hearing on H.R. 806, the "Ozone Standards Implementation Act," offered clear evidence that spending issues are already bubbling up in the broader debate over federal environmental policy.
Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko of New York, the ranking member on the environment subcommittee, led off. "We must assume state and local air quality management grants ... will not be immune from these cuts," he said in his opening statement, pointing his remarks at a witness panel dominated by state and local air regulators.
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) followed later with a question about the effect of the White House's proposed elimination of targeted airshed grants, which steer cleanup money to pollution hot spots.
Reductions to incentive funding of any kind "will be devastating to our efforts," replied Seyed Sadredin, executive director of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, which covers a portion of central California that struggles with some of the nation's worst ozone problems.
And while bill supporters noted that EPA is already routinely late in meeting some of its statutory responsibilities, more budget cuts would mean "it's going to be another 20 years before they can get some of these things done," Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) said.
Read more...
Washington Continues to Consider a Carbon Tax and Defends Clean Air Rule
By K&L Gates, Lexology.
This is the first installment in the West Coast Carbon Policy Update — Three Part Series, which will examine carbon policies along the West Coast in Washington, Oregon, and California.
Introduction
While federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement) may be rolled back under the Trump administration, states continue to take steps to reduce greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. In Washington, lawmakers continue to explore passing a carbon tax while the state’s Clean Air Rule faces judicial scrutiny. Meanwhile, in Oregon, lawmakers are considering several bills, including a statewide cap-and-trade program and a carbon tax, to add a pricing component to climate regulations passed by the Oregon legislature in 2007 and the future of California’s cap-and-trade program is uncertain. These state-led efforts create a patchwork of different climate regulations on the West Coast, which may present challenges to compliance — particularly for those entities that operate across the West.
Regulatory freeze expires on 2017 RFS biofuel volumes, spurs implementation of 2017 RVO as planned
By Christie Moffat & Leela Landress, ICIS
The US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) biofuel volume mandate for 2017 took effect on Tuesday, after a regulatory freeze introduced by the Trump administration expired, industry players confirmed.
The Trump administration introduced a 60-day delay on regulations that had been published in the Federal Register between 28 October 2016 and 17 January 2017.
According to the White House, the purpose of the regulatory freeze was to review "questions of fact, law, and policy" that any previously approved regulations might raise.
By Christie Moffat & Leela Landress, ICIS
The US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) biofuel volume mandate for 2017 took effect on Tuesday, after a regulatory freeze introduced by the Trump administration expired, industry players confirmed.
The Trump administration introduced a 60-day delay on regulations that had been published in the Federal Register between 28 October 2016 and 17 January 2017.
According to the White House, the purpose of the regulatory freeze was to review "questions of fact, law, and policy" that any previously approved regulations might raise.
This included the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final rule for renewable volume obligations (RVO) under the RFS, which were finalised in November last year.
The RFS requires refiners and fuel importers to blend increasing volumes of biofuels each year for the US market. That includes cellulosic ethanol, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel.
The EPA mandated that 15.0bn gal of total volumes in 2017 be for conventional biofuel, which is primarily ethanol derived from corn feedstock.
The agency also released its final rule on RVOs for biomass-based diesel, setting the amount at 2.0bn gal in 2017, and 2.1bn gal in 2018.
As of Tuesday, no further delays to the RFS rule had been posted.
Ruling on California cap-and-trade auctions expected by late April
By Jon Campisi, Northern California Record.
During the past four years, more than $4 billion from greenhouse gas emission credits that are auctioned off through the state’s cap-and-trade program have poured into California’s general fund.
The money, which is paid for by businesses seeking to emit more pollution into the atmosphere than is allowed through state caps, has become somewhat controversial, given the way it is collected from industry.
By late April, California’s Third District Court of Appeal is expected to rule whether the auction scheme constitutes illegal taxes or regulatory fees, a question raised in litigation challenging the auctions.
By Jon Campisi, Northern California Record.
During the past four years, more than $4 billion from greenhouse gas emission credits that are auctioned off through the state’s cap-and-trade program have poured into California’s general fund.
The money, which is paid for by businesses seeking to emit more pollution into the atmosphere than is allowed through state caps, has become somewhat controversial, given the way it is collected from industry.
By late April, California’s Third District Court of Appeal is expected to rule whether the auction scheme constitutes illegal taxes or regulatory fees, a question raised in litigation challenging the auctions.
Cap and trade began in California in 2013. It was born out of a law, AB 32, which was enacted by the state legislature in 2006 as a way to help control greenhouse gas emissions.
The way the program works is that companies receive an allowance for each ton of greenhouse gases they emit, and if they seek to go above that cap, they are able to purchase additional allowances from other companies—hence "cap and trade."
The additional allowances, or credits, are obtained through state auctions.
One of the legal arguments made by those challenging the auctions is that business owners are essentially paying a new tax through the program, something that would require a two-thirds supermajority of the legislature for passage.
California Looks To Jet Fuel To Further Reduce Emissions
By Sally Schilling, Capital Public Radio.
In light of its lofty greenhouse gas reduction goals, California is now turning to jet fuels as another area where it can curb emissions.
California's Air Resources Board is looking at how to encourage production of cleaner jet fuels under the state's Low Carbon Fuel Standard program, which aims to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels. The board is considering giving credits to alternative jet fuel producers.
IKEA fires up fifth biogas fuel cell
By Anna Simet, Biomass Magazine.
Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA has finished installing its fifth biogas-powered fuel cell system among its fleet of California stores, the company announced March 16.
St. Cloud water resource recovery facility progresses with renewable energy
By Associated Press, via The Washington Times.
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) - The city of St. Cloud has launched a project to use renewable energy to power its sprawling wastewater treatment plant.
Clean Energy Resource Teams government outreach coordinator Peter Lindstrom said that other cities are paying attention to St. Cloud’s cutting-edge methane recapture project, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
McGuire Woods lands top House Republican tax aide
By Megan R. Wilson, The Hill.
Harold Hancock, the top tax counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee, has joined law and lobby firm McGuireWoods, the firm told The Hill.
In the new position, as a partner at the firm, Hancock stands to play an important role as tax reform moves through Capitol Hill this year.
By Megan R. Wilson, The Hill.
Harold Hancock, the top tax counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee, has joined law and lobby firm McGuireWoods, the firm told The Hill.
In the new position, as a partner at the firm, Hancock stands to play an important role as tax reform moves through Capitol Hill this year.
He has spent the last six years on the tax-writing panel, serving under three chairmen: former Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), now-Speaker Paul Ryan(R-Wis.) and the committee’s current leader, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas).
Congress is working on advancing comprehensive tax reform, and leadership both in the White House and in the Capitol have a goal of completing it by the end of the year.
“It very much is a workable goal,” Hancock told The Hill of the year-end target. “Members need to make final decisions on what this plan will look like, and [congressional] staff is preparing every possible option for them.”
“As a staffer, your job is to write them with every possible option to make it workable,” he added.
The Ways and Means Committee has been taking the lead on tax reform and is working on legislation based off a "blueprint" on tax reform House Republicans released last year. The blueprint would lower the top individual tax rate to 33 percent and the corporate tax rate to 20 percent.
California bill seeks to extend cap-and-trade program
By Peter Maloney, Utility Dive.
A bill introduced in the California legislation would extend the state’s greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade program.
The bill would no longer limit the applicability of the GHG cap-and-trade program to an end date of Dec. 31, 2020.
- The bill, AB 151, aims to support the state law that requires GHG emissions to be cut by at least 40% below 1990’s level by 2030.
Trump to Announce Plans to Reverse Obama’s Climate Change Legacy
By Coral Davenport, The New York Times.
WASHINGTON — President Trump is poised in the coming days to announce his plans to dismantle the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s climate change legacy, while also gutting several smaller but significant policies aimed at curbing global warming.
The moves are intended to send an unmistakable signal to the nation and the world that Mr. Trump intends to follow through on his campaign vows to rip apart every element of what the president has called Mr. Obama’s “stupid” policies to address climate change. The timing and exact form of the announcement remain unsettled, however.
By Coral Davenport, The New York Times.
WASHINGTON — President Trump is poised in the coming days to announce his plans to dismantle the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s climate change legacy, while also gutting several smaller but significant policies aimed at curbing global warming.
The moves are intended to send an unmistakable signal to the nation and the world that Mr. Trump intends to follow through on his campaign vows to rip apart every element of what the president has called Mr. Obama’s “stupid” policies to address climate change. The timing and exact form of the announcement remain unsettled, however.
The executive actions will follow the White House’s release last week of a proposed budget that would eliminate climate change research and prevention programs across the federal government and slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 31 percent, more than any other agency. Mr. Trump also announced last week that he had ordered Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, to revise the agency’s stringent standards on planet-warming tailpipe pollution from vehicles, another of Mr. Obama’s key climate change policies.
While the White House is not expected to explicitly say the United States is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, and people familiar with the White House deliberations say Mr. Trump has not decided whether to do so, the policy reversals would make it virtually impossible to meet the emissions reduction goals set by the Obama administration under the international agreement.
Don’t miss an update—join our weekly newsletter below.