WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! We are starting off Daily on Energy with news from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which announced it will seek to pause litigation challenging its controversial climate disclosure rule while the Republican-led commission evaluates its next steps.
Callie and Maydeen also take a look at several orders by President Donald Trump aimed at reversing certain home appliance standards. Meanwhile, Callie takes a look at farmers who are waiting on millions in federal grants frozen by the administration last month.
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.
SEC PAUSES ITS CLIMATE DISCLOSURE RULE LITIGATION: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Republican Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda is seeking to pause litigation against the agency’s climate disclosure rules while the commissioners evaluate next steps.
Some background: Under SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, the agency finalized climate disclosure rules last year, requiring certain publicly traded companies to disclose their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. However, the rule was quickly met with litigation by Republican-led states and industry groups, claiming that the SEC did not have statutory authority to implement a rule on climate. The lawsuits were consolidated in the Eighth Circuit and the rule’s effective date was paused until pending litigation was completed.
Purpose of the rule: Gensler and Democrat commissioners argued that investors needed clear information on companies before investing in them.
Now with a Republican-majority at the commission, Uyeda is directing its staff to pause the litigation while the commission determines the next steps in the lawsuits. Uyeda said the rule is “deeply flawed and could inflict significant harm on the capital markets and our economy.”
Both Uyeda and Commissioner Hester Peirce voted against the rule last year. At the time, Peirce argued that “only a mandate from Congress should put us in the business of facilitating the disclosure of information not clearly related to financial returns.”
TRUMP ORDERS EPA TO REVERSE DISHWASHER, WASHING MACHINE, AND LIGHTBULB STANDARDS: President Donald Trump called on the Environmental Protection Agency to roll back standards for lightbulbs and water-using appliances that were implemented by the Biden administration.
In a social media post today, Trump instructed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to “immediately go back to my Environmental Orders, which were terminated by Crooked Joe Biden, on Water Standards and Flow pertaining to SINKS, SHOWERS, TOILETS, WASHING MACHINES DISHWASHERS, etc.”
He added that lightbulb standards should also be reversed and the agency should instead use “common sense standards” that were put into place during his first term.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration issued new energy-efficiency rules for household appliances, such as washing machines and gas stoves. However, Trump quickly sought to reverse those rules. In one of his first executive orders, “Unleashing American Energy,” Trump called to “safeguard” consumers’ choice of home appliances.
PLASTIC STRAW PROTECTIONS: Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to end its use of biodegradable paper straws, and lift “the forced use” of them nationwide.
The details: The order specifically calls on the government to end all purchases of paper straws and ensure they are no longer provided inside federal buildings. It also calls for the development of a “National Strategy to End the Use of Paper Straws” within 45 days of signing the order to end the forced use of paper straws across the country.
“The irrational campaign against plastic straws has forced Americans to use nonfunctional paper straws. This ends under President Trump,” the order reads.
Trump raised the issue last week, declaring his plans to end the “ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws.”
“Crooked Joe’s MANDATE, ‘NO PLASTIC STRAWS, ONLY PAPER,’ IS DEAD!,” the president wrote on social media over the weekend. “Enjoy your next drink without a straw that disgustingly dissolves in your mouth!!!”
“We’re going back to plastic straws. These things don’t work,” the president told reporters gathered in the Oval Office for his signing ceremony Monday evening. “I’ve had them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode.”
Read more from the Examiner’s Christian Datoc here.
DOZENS OF EPA EMPLOYEES PLACED ON LEAVE: The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that 171 employees are set to be placed on leave, complying with Trump’s crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and programs within the federal government.
On Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.” Since then a number of agencies have made steps to comply with the order, including canceling certain celebrations or pausing actions for groups focused on identity.
“Under President Trump, the EPA will be focused on our core mission to protect human health and the environment, while Powering the Great American Comeback,” Zeldin said in a statement. “The previous Administration used DEI and Environmental Justice to advance ideological priorities, distributing billions of dollars to organizations in the name of climate equity. This ends now. We will be good stewards of tax dollars and do everything in our power to deliver clean air, land, and water to every American, regardless of race, religion, background, and creed.”
The announcement came one day after Zeldin claimed in a post that the Biden administration “funneled billions to far-left groups in the name of climate equity.”
“$50M to Climate Justice Alliance which believes ‘climate justice travels through a Free Palestine’, $50M to 2 NY/NJ immigration groups, & much more,” the administrator wrote. “This ends now!”
He later emphasized that the EPA’s priorities under the Trump administration will be to protect human health, the environment, and “Powering the Great American Comeback.”
FARMERS FEEL THE SQUEEZE OF FEDERAL FUNDING FREEZE: Farmers across the country who have been waiting on millions of dollars in federal grants have been left to foot the bill in recent weeks amid the Trump administration’s freeze on federal funding.
Some background: On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order halting a wide range of federal funds, affecting many clean energy and green-focused programs designated by the Democrat-passed Inflation Reduction Act. The funding freeze particularly halted grants promised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Rural Energy for America Program. Both programs provide assistance for farmers nationwide for agricultural or energy upgrades. While the administration has since been ordered by a federal judge to fully restore the funds, farmers who were promised their grants weeks ago are still waiting.
The details: Maryland flower farmer Laura Beth Resnick signed a contract with USDA to cover half the cost of a solar panel installation in early 2024. Resnick told Callie that the government agreed to pay $36,450, which would be distributed several weeks after the panels were installed and in operation. Once the panels were installed in December, the flower farmer was anticipating receiving those funds by the end of January — the same week the funding freeze went into effect.
She was later told by USDA that the grant was “rejected” due to “the recent executive orders issued under the Trump administration,” as seen in an email shared with Daily on Energy. The agency told the farmer that they needed to wait and see if the freeze would be lifted to further process payment. One week later, Resnick still hasn’t seen the funds.
Key quotes: “We’re just really concerned, you know, like, we can’t afford — we would not have had these solar panels if we knew that we would be paying for them all out of pocket,” Resnick said. “It’s just not something we could have done.”
“I feel like my world has been turned upside down,” she added. “You know, farmers don’t have a whole lot of trust with the government anyway. So it takes a little bit of a leap of faith to even sign a contract in the first place.”
DEB HAALAND LAUNCHES GUBERNATORIAL BID: Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has announced her campaign for governor of New Mexico, marking one of the first major political moves of a top cabinet member from the Biden administration.
The details: Haaland launched her campaign in a video shared to X this morning, touting her experience in Congress and the Department of Interior.
“When I became New Mexico’s member of Congress and then the leader of the U.S. Department of Interior, I seized the opportunity to make change,” Haaland said in the video. “But the problems we face now are bigger than ever, and we must be fierce to solve them. That’s why I am running for governor of the great state of New Mexico.
“New Mexico is rich in tradition and spirit, rich in natural resources, so why can’t our families pay our bills? Crime, poverty, homelessness, addiction,” she continued. “They will keep pulling us down if we do the same things and expect a different result.”
If elected, Haaland would be the first Native American woman to serve as governor in the state. She was the first Native American woman elected to Congress and to serve as a cabinet secretary.
The race: Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham has served as New Mexico’s governor since 2019. As the state bars governors from serving a third term, she is unable to run for reelection, leaving the seat open. New Mexico is a predominantly blue state, with Haaland already considered the frontrunner in the race. Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich was previously floated as a possible candidate, but he announced in January that he intended to stay in the Senate. As of Tuesday, no Republican candidate had announced their intention to run.
CHEVRON OIL RESERVES HIT RECORD LOWS: Last year, oil and gas giant Chevron saw its reserves fall to the lowest point in at least a decade.
The details: By the end of 2024, Chevron’s oil and gas reserves had dropped more than a billion barrels equivalent from 11.1 billion the year before to 9.8 billion, according to a Reuters analysis. At the same time, the company’s reserves replacement ratio has dropped to 45%. Over the last 10 years, this was around 88%. This measures how fast new oil and gas is added to the reserves compared to the amount depleted.
The decline comes as Chevron has been struggling to close a planned acquisition of Hess. Hess currently has a stake in the Guyana oilfields, the assets of which could help fill Chevron’s reverses. However, the $53 billion acquisition — first announced in late 2023 — has been held up in court by Exxon, which operates in the Guyana oilfields. As a result, investors have begun to grow concerned over Chevron’s reserve levels, with analysts saying the current replacement rates raise “red flags,” according to Reuters.
THE UNITED KINGDOM REMAINS ALIGNED WITH PARIS AGREEMENT GOALS: The United Kingdom is the largest economy to continue pursuing the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Bloomberg reports.
Yesterday, many nations in the Paris Agreement missed their deadline to set new goals for reducing carbon emissions. Bloomberg said that seven of the 10 largest global economies failed to submit updated targets, including China, Russia, and the European Union. The updated targets are required every five years.
The UK’s target is to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% from 1990 levels, excluding international aviation and shipping emissions. The UK’s plan is the only one that is consistent with the agreement target, according to the Climate Action Tracker.
ICYMI – NEW YORK ANNOUNCES $60 MILLION LOAN FOR EV CHARGERS: New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced a $60 million loan to build 267 new charging stalls across nine sites.
“In support of the transition to a clean energy economy, it is critical that we continue to build electric vehicle infrastructure to ease the shift to EV ownership for more New Yorkers, especially those in urban areas,” Hochul said.
“This significant investment addresses the key need of providing electric vehicle users in New York City with much needed public charging options while reducing local emissions,” she added.
The loan will be provided to Revel, the largest provider of public EV fast-charging in the city. Revel will complete the build out of charging stalls across the nine sites by 2027. Some of the sites include: 60 charging stalls in Maspeth, Queens, 44 charging stalls near LaGuardia Airport, and 24 charging stalls at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
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