California commits to cleaner cars in break with Trump administration

By Patrick Reilly, Christian Science Monitor.

MARCH 25, 2017 —On Friday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted to finalize new vehicle emissions rules for the model years 2022-2025.

Eight years from now, new cars and trucks sold in the Golden State will be required to have an average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon. The CARB rules will also mean more “zero emission vehicles” powered by batteries and fuel cells, and tough new standards on particulate matter pollution.

The CARB didn’t come up with these guidelines on the spot. The Obama administration had sought to apply them nationally, but President Trump’s administration put them back under review. Now, environmentalists are looking to California to keep the higher emission standards from being tossed out.

“The public is bearing a huge cost” from vehicle emissions, said Bonnie Holmes-Gen of the American Lung Association of California at Friday’s meeting. “I urge California to keep us on track.”

If California succeeds, other states may follow. The sheer size of California’s market, and a unique waiver from the Clean Air Act, give it an outsize role in determining what comes out of your car's tailpipe. With this vote, it’s trying to raise those standards at the same moment when the feds and automakers want them eased.

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White House looks past conservatives on tax reform - to Democrats

By Lindsay Dunsmuir and Doina Chiacu, via WHTC News.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh off a defeat on U.S. healthcare legislation, the White House warned rebellious conservative lawmakers that they should get behind President Donald Trump's agenda or he may bypass them on future legislative fights, including tax reform.

The threat by White House chief of staff Reince Priebus to build a broad coalition on tax reform that could include moderate Democrats came as the Republican head of the tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives said he hoped to move a tax bill through his panel this spring.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said his committee had been working on tax reform in parallel with the failed healthcare reform push.

"We've never stopped working," Brady told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo." "We will continue to make improvements."

Brady said the committee planned to move on the bill in the spring. He said he wanted the House blueprint to be the basis for Trump's tax reform plan rather than have competing versions from Treasury and the White House.

Investors on Wall Street worry the healthcare bill's defeat bodes poorly for tax reform. Equities have rallied since Trump's election partly on expectations of tax cuts. Economic growth would be more modest without fiscal stimulus and U.S. equity index futures fell to a six-week low on Sunday.

Both Trump and Priebus have scolded hardline conservatives who rejected legislation backed by the White House to replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

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House Ways and Means Chairman Aims to Move Tax Bill Through Committee in Spring

By Joel Schectman, Reuters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representative Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said he aims to move a tax reform bill through his committee this spring.

Brady told Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" that his committee had been working on tax reform in parallel with the failed healthcare reform push.

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Washington & Oregon Governors Join Gov. Jerry Brown in Banding Together To Challenge Trump's Energy Plans

By Molly Solomon, KUOW News.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington are banding together in support of clean energy. They met Saturday in Seattle to discuss concerns over the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate policies that combat climate change. 

“It doesn’t make sense for Oregon to do it alone; it makes sense when we do it in a regional basis,” Brown said, emphasizing that West Coast states need to work together. 

“We are only a small part of the global climate challenge, but we can be a large part of the solution,” she added. “Oregonians are committed to moving our state forward and, working with Washington and California, we can continue to move the entire country forward. Our citizens are demanding cleaner air and cleaner water — we are not willing to go backwards.” 

The governors recently joined California Gov. Jerry Brown and five West Coast mayors in a letter reaffirming support for the Clean Power Plan.

“We speak as a region of over 50 million people with a combined GDP of $2.8 trillion. There is no question that to act on climate is to act in our best economic interests. Through expanded climate policies, we have grown jobs and expanded our economies while cleaning our air,” the letter said.

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British Columbia seeks to increase the market for LNG and renewable natural gas

From BC Gov News.

The Government of British Columbia is taking action under the Climate Leadership Plan to support investments by natural gas utilities that will increase the use of LNG and renewable natural gas in the transportation, marine and other sectors and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

“We’re working with utilities to stimulate the use of LNG as a marine fuel in large, ocean-going ships, and to increase the supply and use of renewable natural gas,” said Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett. “Building the market for B.C.’s abundant supplies of natural gas offers the opportunity to achieve significant GHG emissions reductions and supports jobs and economic opportunities in British Columbia’s natural gas sector.”

Amendments to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Regulation (GGRR) under the Clean Energy Act will enable utilities to increase incentives provided to shipping companies for the conversion of vessels to run on LNG, invest in LNG bunkering (marine fuelling) infrastructure, and increase the supply and use of renewable natural gas (RNG).

Programs under the GGRR are funded by the utility, not the Province. The amendments are enabling only, and set the parameters for potential utility programs and investments that will reduce GHG emissions.

“We are creating market opportunities for British Columbia’s natural gas sector, offering utilities flexibility to create new incentive programs so we can continue to build a strong economy and a cleaner future,” said Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Gas Development Rich Coleman.

Converting just one ocean-going tanker, cruise ship, or container ship to run on LNG instead of heavy fuel oil will reduce GHG emissions by about 93,500 tonnes per year, equivalent to taking over 19,800 vehicles off the road. Utility investments in LNG fuelling infrastructure will help establish B.C. as a marine bunkering centre on the west coast capable of providing LNG to an increasing number of LNG vessels and leading to global reductions in GHG emissions.

RNG is derived from biogas created when organic waste decomposes at landfills, agricultural and forestry waste sites and wastewater treatment facilities. Although conventional natural gas has 25% less carbon than diesel fuel and 25-39% less than typical marine fuels, RNG is considered carbon neutral unless forestry biomass is used. In this case, if waste or dead biomass is used, RNG has lower lifecycle emissions than conventional natural gas. Increased use of RNG could result in up to 450,000 tonnes of GHG reductions per year in B.C., and will also help build the market for biogas, providing economic opportunities for local governments and farming and forestry operations.

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LA & Long Beach Port Fleets Now Include Zero-Emissions Natural Gas Engine

By HDT Trucking Info.

Total Transportation Services, Inc. (TTSI), a drayage trucking company in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., has begun using one of the first Cummins Westport (CWI) ISX12 G low-NOx natural gas engines for its trucking operations.

Available for order later this year, the 12.0L engine’s emissions will be certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to produce 90% less NOx than the current EPA standard for heavy-duty engines, and are equivalent to that of a truck powered by electricity from the electrical grid.

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Over Three Dozen Senators Call for Reversal of Proposed EPA Cuts

From the office of Senator Jeff Merkley.

Senators: Trump’s pledge for clean air and water is “meaningless” when followed by proposal for drastic cuts that would undercut EPA’s core mission

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley led a group of 37 Senators in opposing President Trump’s proposal to inflict a more than 30 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget.

Expressing “extreme concern” over the cuts, the Senators wrote to appropriations leaders, “During the President’s February 28, 2017 address to Congress, he pledged to ‘promote clean air and water.’ Such a pledge is meaningless when the President follows it by proposing a 31 percent cut to the EPA’s budget and a 20 percent reduction in its staff. If enacted, this funding cut would effectively eliminate the EPA’s ability to execute its core mission to protect public health and ensure citizens have clean air, clean water, and are protected from hazardous waste and contaminants.”

The Senators highlighted many areas of concern where the proposed cuts would significantly harm communities across America—from reducing clean air and clean water grants and cutting enforcement against polluters, to cutting funding for Superfund sites by 30 percent, to entirely eliminating efforts to combat climate change and clean up major regional bodies of water, like the Great Lakes and the Columbia River Basin. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has insisted that states should be the primary protectors of the environment. However, this proposed budget would drastically cut grants that are crucial for states to protect their clean water and clean air, monitor health impacts of pollution, and reclaim toxic-contaminated sites throughout the country.

“We urge you to oppose these drastic and dangerous cuts, and support continued funding for the EPA,” the Senators concluded. 

In addition to Merkley, the letter was signed by Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-DE), and Senators Tom Udall (D-NM), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Chris Coons (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Al Franken (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Gary Peters (D-MI), Bob Casey (D-PA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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