HEAVY-DUTY VEHICLE EMISSIONS RULES GET HELP IN COURT: Green and health advocacy groups are going toe-to-toe with Republicans over the Environmental Protection Agency’s tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles, looking to defend the standards they argue are crucial to curbing climate pollution.
The details: Ten environmental and health groups filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuits today against the EPA’s trucking standards. The suits in question were filed last week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit: one led by Republican attorneys general, and another filed by Arizona state legislators and the Arizona Trucking Association.
Quick refresher: In March, the EPA finalized strict emission standards for both heavy-, medium- and light-duty trucks between 2027-2032 – with the administration touting it as its most aggressive effort to boost electric vehicles and combat emissions from the transportation sector.
“EPA’s Clean Truck Standards are critically important for protecting public health and our climate,” said Alice Henderson, the Environmental Defense Fund’s director and lead counsel for transportation and clean air. “They are also attainable, cost-effective, and legally sound.”
Who’s on the motion to intervene: The Environmental Defense Fund, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Clean Air Council (represented by Clean Air Task Force), Environmental Law & Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, and Sierra Club joined today’s motion to intervene.
Their argument: The groups argue that the members of the motion to intervene “will suffer economic, health, recreational, and aesthetic injuries” from the effects of climate change, along with increased air pollution and diminished deployment of lower-polluting trucks, if the rule is vacated.
More specifically, the motion details that the members are likely to suffer climate, air pollution, and business injuries if the rule is vacated. Some “climate injuries” include decreased lung function, respiratory-related hospitalizations, cardiac arrest, and premature deaths for vulnerable populations such as children and older individuals.
The lawsuit contends that the standards are performance-based and technology-neutral, allowing manufacturers to adopt a range of technologies to comply with the new standards.
About those GOP-led lawsuits: Republican state attorneys argued in their lawsuit that the finalized rule exceeds the agency’s statutory authority, calling it “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.”
The states involved: Nebraska, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Arizona Republican leadership – specifically Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma – filed a separate lawsuit with the Arizona Trucking Association against the standards, maintaining the same argument as the state-led lawsuit.
Their criticisms: Although the finalized heavy-duty rule was watered down to give manufacturers more flexibility to meet the standards, the move still didn’t mollify critics.
Industry groups have said the rule could force truckers to rely on charging stations that haven’t been built yet. Others have argued that the high cost of zero emissions vehicles could force companies to keep higher-polluting trucks on the road for longer.
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A BIDEN VETO ON CRUZ CRA ON GAS FURNACES: President Joe Biden has threatened to veto a congressional resolution that would undo his administration‘s new efficiency standards for gas furnaces, our Haisten Willis reports.
The Congressional Review Act resolution, S.J. Res. 58, is scheduled for a vote this evening in the Senate. GOP Sen. Ted Cruz is the primary sponsor and says the rule would effectively ban all non-condensing furnace models, forcing people to convert to electric heat pumps.
But Biden argues that the standards will save people money, as the rule requires manufacturers to sell only furnaces that convert at least 95% of fuel into heat.
Congressional Republicans and the Biden administration have sparred for much of his first term over appliance regulations, most notably gas stoves, which became a national story last year when an administration official suggested they could be banned. Read more from Haisten here.
YELLEN DEFENDS CHINA TARIFFS AND IRA SUBSIDIES IN GERMANY: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen gave a speech in Germany today defending the administration’s efforts to subsidize clean energy and electric vehicles and its tariffs on Chinese goods, both of which have been derided as protectionist by critics abroad.
Here are some notable parts of her speech at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, from the text circulated by the Treasury beforehand:
On China: Yellen, who had been a longtime defender of free trade, justified the administration’s tariffs and other restrictions on trade with China as efforts to “de-risk” commerce from unfair Chinese practices. She said that “we do not seek to decouple; we seek to diversify.”
“China’s industrial policy may seem remote as we sit here in this room, but if we do not respond strategically and in a united way, the viability of businesses in both our countries and around the world could be at risk,” she said.
On IRA subsidies: “The IRA is not a turn toward American protectionism. We’re not creating opportunities just at home. U.S.-EU trade in green energy products exceeded $2 billion in 2022, and European countries can be leaders in this area,” Yellen said. She added that U.S. domestic production will drive down costs globally, benefiting everyone.
On Russia: Yellen claimed success for the price cap on Russian oil, which has come under criticism from analysts as Russia’s oil export revenues have proved robust. “Energy market participants, analysts, and even Russia’s top energy official have linked our increased enforcement activities to the increased discount on Russian oil,” she said.
SHELL CLIMATE SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTION FAILS: Shell investors rejected a climate resolution filed by activist investors at the corporation’s annual shareholder meeting today, Reuters reports.
The resolution, filed by the activist investor Follow This, would have called on Shell to align its medium-term emissions targets with the Paris Agreement goals – including its Scope 3 emissions, meaning those generated in the use of its oil and gas products. The resolution garnered support from less than 19% of shareholders.
Shell had pared back its medium-term emissions targets in March, citing uncertainty about the pace of the energy transition.
“Shell believes continued investment in oil and gas will be needed,” Chairman Andrew Mackenzie said Tuesday.
The meeting was broken up several times by protesters chanting “Shell kills.”
It’s been a big week already for news related to activist investors and oil majors – we wrote yesterday about the escalating war between Exxon Mobil and CalPERS.
GOOGLE SPIN-OFF CARBON CAPTURE PLANT BEGINS OPERATIONS IN OREGON: 280 Earth, a carbon capture startup that began as a Google X project, said that it has begun operations at a carbon capture plant in The Dalles, Oregon.
What’s different about it: The plant uses a prototype technology that exposes air to a sorbent material, which binds most of the CO2 in the air. Jacques Gagne, the company’s chief technical officer, told the Columbia Gorge News that the technology has not been used anywhere before and is specially designed to handle the moist Pacific Northwest air.
INDUSTRY DISCONTENT WITH BIDEN SETS SCENE FOR TRUMP FUNDRAISER: The oil and gas sector’s displeasure with the administration’s pause on new LNG export approvals has hardened opposition to Biden, the New York Times reports, as key industry officials prepare this week to join a fundraising lunch for President Donald Trump in Houston.
The pause “was a wake-up call,” American Energy Alliance president Thomas Pyle told the publication. “He could be potentially icing billions of dollars in long-term L.N.G. contracts. That’s real. That’s tangible.”
The lunch to benefit the MAGA Inc. will also feature Energy Transfer executive chairman Kelcy Lee Warren, Continental Resources executive chairman and founder Harold Hamm, and Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub.
It comes about a month after Trump reportedly asked oil executives at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago to contribute $1 billion to his campaign. Democrats have decried the request as corruption and have begun investigating industry members who were present.
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