WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Friday, readers! We hope that you’re ready to ride out the cold snap that has forced the presidential inauguration address to be moved indoors.
In today’s Daily on Energy, Maydeen, with the help of our editor Joe Lawler, takes a look at some of the last energy- and environment-related actions by the Biden administration, as well as the latest from L.A. and more.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “In our time, President Trump’s energy dominance can be America’s ‘big stick’ that is leveraged to achieve historic prosperity and world peace,” Doug Burgum, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of the Interior, said in his opening statement to lawmakers at his confirmation hearing yesterday.
“The Department of the Interior, in cooperation with U.S. Congress, this committee, and the states, will play a pivotal role in achieving the outcomes to make the world safer and America even better for our children, grandchildren, and generations to come,” he said.
POLAR VORTEX TO HIT THE U.S.: Frigid temperatures are expected to hit parts of the U.S. starting this weekend.
Cold air originating from Siberia is predicted to move in and hit parts of the Midwest starting on Saturday while moving towards the East Coast. AccuWeather said next week’s nighttime temperatures could be in the single digits for cities like New York. It added that January temperatures have been averaging 2.4 degrees below historical levels.
“The cold outbreak will occur right smack in the middle of what is historically the coldest part of the winter,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Larson.
The low temperatures have forced Monday’s Presidential Inauguration Address to be moved inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Washington D.C. is expected to see frigid temperatures starting Sunday and could see some snowfall in the next couple of days.
“I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985, also because of very cold weather,” Trump announced today on Truth Social. “The various Dignitaries and Guests will be brought into the Capitol. This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!”
GREENHOUSE GASES INCREASED AT RECORD RATE IN 2024: The Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii reports that last year witnessed the fastest annual rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration on record.
“The average annual CO2 rise has increased over the 6 decades of the Mauna Loa record, due to ongoing rise in human-caused emissions which once again reached a new record high in 2024,” the observatory’s carbon dioxide forecast for 2025 reads.
The report shows that, between 2023 and 2024, carbon dioxide rose by 3.58 parts per million. It added that the trajectory of increased carbon does not favor the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global warming levels to 1.5 Celsius below pre-industrial levels.
Meanwhile, the report forecast that carbon dioxide concentrations will again rise quickly in 2025, but the increase will likely be smaller than last year due to the emerging La Niña conditions.
La Niña has colder “sea surface temperatures, there is less evaporative cooling of the ocean, less convective cloudiness blocking the sun from heating the ocean, and less convective heating of the atmosphere,” according to NOAA, leading to cooler temperatures and lowering global temperatures.
THE LATEST ON THE LOS ANGELES FIRES: Firefighters continue to grow containment of the two large wildfires in Los Angeles County. As of this morning, the Palisades Fire is at 31% containment and the Eaton Fire is at 65% containment.
Yesterday, officials from Los Angeles said evacuees will need to wait to return to their homes until responders are able to remove toxic debris from neighborhoods. Some of the evacuees from the city of Encino have been able to return to their homes. The fires have destroyed at least 12,300 structures.
Legislation: Lawmakers in D.C. have been introducing bills to address the Los Angeles wildfires. Today, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet reintroduced the Cleaner Air Spaces Act (CASA) which would provide grants to expand local clean air programs, specifically in communities with a high risk of wildfire smoke exposure. California Rep. Scott Peters will introduce a companion bill in the House.
“Coloradans know too well how harmful wildfire smoke is to their long-term health and quality of life,” Bennett said in a statement. “As wildfires have become more frequent and destructive, like those devastating Los Angeles, we need to give our most vulnerable communities the means to protect themselves and their families from the lasting damage of toxic smoke.”
Law enforcement: Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said today it has conducted 36 arrests within the Eaton Fire Zone. There have been issues with looting in the areas of the fire, forcing law enforcement to implement curfews in certain areas.
“Deputies are diligently working through the night to keep disaster workers and residences of the evacuees secure until they can return home,” the sheriff’s department said on X.
FEDERAL RESERVE LEAVES GREEN NETWORK: The Federal Reserve announced today that it has left the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System.
In a short statement, the central bank said that “the work of the NGFS has increasingly broadened in scope, covering a wider range of issues that are outside of the Board’s statutory mandate.”
The group, formed at the Paris “One Planet Summit” in December 2017, brings together central banks and regulatory agencies to coordinate to work toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and “enhance the role of the financial system to manage risks and to mobilize mainstream finance in the context of environmentally sustainable development.”
The Fed joined in 2020.
Why this matters: The Fed’s abrupt departure comes as major financial institutions have cooled on ESG. Recently, for example, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance has seen mass defections of big banks and investors.
Republicans had criticized the NGFS as opaque and objected to the use of its climate scenarios in planning exercises run by the financial regulators.
AN UPDATED PRICE TAG FOR IRA INCENTIVES: The clean energy subsidies authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act will cost the government $825 billion over the next 10 years, Congressional Budget Office director Philip Swagel said today, Reuters reports.
Swagel was addressing the media after the CBO released its updated budget and economic projections.
The IRA subsidies initially were forecast to cost $270 billion. Swagel said the cost has risen in part because the 10-year window now includes more years in which the incentives will be in place, and because of changes that are expected to lead to higher take-up of the tax credits. The new auto emissions rules put in place by the Biden administration, for instance, are set to sway more people to drive electric vehicles and claim IRA EV credits.
DOE FINALIZES LOAN FOR LITHIUM NEVADA PROJECT: The Department of Energy has finalized a $996 million loan for ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium project, Reuters reports, a larger loan than anticipated.
According to documents reviewed by Reuters, the loan amount is $296 million more than the preliminary funding offer. The loan will help to fund a lithium mining project in Nevada. Lithium is used to make electric vehicle batteries.
The loan is yet another move by the administration to solidify Biden’s climate agenda. The Biden administration through the Inflation Reduction Act has provided funding and incentives to boost the domestic EV industry to help transition the U.S. to clean energy. The Trump administration will look to undo Biden’s EV incentives.
BIDEN DOT FINALIZES METHANE LEAK RULE: The Department of Transportation finalized rules today meant to limit leaks of methane from pipelines, Bloomberg reports.
The rules apply to 2.8 million miles of pipelines and are billed as cutting 500,000 metric tons of methane emissions and saving up to $1.5 billion.
“It will harness the tremendous new potential we are seeing from mobile leak detection systems, unmanned aerial systems, and other innovative technologies to mitigate this threat to people and the environment,” said Tristan Brown, the Deputy Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
ICYMI – BIDEN TAKES STEPS TO PROTECT THE NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE IN ALASKA: Yesterday, the Biden administration announced new protections for Alaska’s North Slope, also known as the National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A), from oil drilling and infrastructure projects.
The announcement comes just days before Trump comes into office. The Biden administration in the last couple of months has made moves to secure its climate agenda and protect land from new oil drilling which Trump has promised once in office.
The Department of Interior released a report and memorandum proposing new and expanded “special area” designations in the Alaska North Slopes, which the department said has environmental and cultural significance for rural Alaskan residents.
“Throughout our efforts to receive feedback from the public, we heard significant input about the need for protecting subsistence by identifying it as a significant resource value in the NPR-A,” Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis said. “Fish and wildlife have provided food for Alaska Native people in this region for millennia and, based on the information we received and our legal mandate, we have concluded it is necessary to commence a process to ensure its protection.”
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska tweeted that “From their first day to nearly their last, the Biden administration has willfully ignored federal law to try to convert the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska into de facto federal wilderness.”
She said that the action extends a “shameful pattern of erasing most Alaska Native voices on the North Slope—pretending they do not exist, and that their views do not matter,” and that it should be reversed by Republicans under Trump.
RUNDOWN
Inside Climate News Smoke and Ash Made More Toxic by the Contents of Burning Homes Threaten Residents of LA and Beyond
Bloomberg EV Charging Deserts Are Gone, But Plug Sharing Has Never Been More Popular
The Washington Post For L.A.’s homeless population, the fires upend hard-earned stability