BREAKING: Senate Republicans are introducing a disapproval resolution to overturn the Biden administration’s standards for reducing tailpipe emissions for new vehicles, finalized just minutes before.
Sens. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, both members of the Environment and Public Works Committee, are introducing two separate disapproval resolutions that would overturn the finalized rule, which would create further restrictions on new vehicle emissions. The pair called the standards “delusional,” and deemed them an electric vehicle mandate that would make it harder for consumers to buy and maintain cars.
“This is the Biden administration’s attempt to get rid of the internal-combustion engine without congressional authority,” the senators said in a statement. “Congress must take action to keep vehicle costs down, protect our free-market economy, and defend consumer choice. We can’t allow Biden to make us more reliant on foreign adversaries like China who control the critical minerals needed for electric vehicles.”
The pair reasoned that the push for EVs would not work in their home states – where extreme cold, isolated communities, and long-distance drives would make for a hazardous combination for the vehicles.
Some background: The EPA’s finalized rule is a watered-down version compared to the original proposal, Breanne writes. While the EPA will still seek for EVs to make up 67% of new car sales by 2032, it will allow automakers to do so using other mixes of vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, strong hybrids, and improved ICE vehicles, in addition to pure battery electric vehicles.
The key part: The administration has faced pushback from auto manufacturers as it attempts to deliver on its EV targets, with manufacturing trade groups arguing that the administration’s EV sales targets are not achievable in the intended timeframe, and risked limiting consumer choice while triggering price hikes for all types of vehicles.
The new rule regulates tailpipe emissions for light and medium-duty vehicles, while another rule regulating heavy-duty vehicles will be introduced at a later time. Ricketts introduced a disapproval resolution for Wednesday’s rule, and Sullivan will be introducing the resolution dealing with heavy-duty vehicles once the rule is finalized.
A long time coming: Sullivan and Ricketts had vowed to introduce resolutions overturning the rule when it was first proposed in 2023, arguing that the standards weren’t achievable. Sen. Joe Manchin said then that he would support an effort to overturn the rule, so be on the lookout for how he votes when this comes to the floor.
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SCALISE ON ENERGY WEEK: Our Cami Mondeaux sat down with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise about Republicans’ “energy week” – a week dedicated to passing legislation targeting the Biden administration’s climate policies. The effort, according to Scalise, aims to highlight what President Joe Biden “has done to hurt American energy and increased costs on families.”
But the effort also gives a preview on how House Republicans intend to campaign on energy issues heading into the November elections, with the measures hitting on the White House’s pause on liquified natural gas exports, an Inflation Reduction Act program that would invest in low-income communities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and more. We had a breakdown of the measures earlier this week – check it out here.
Here’s some notable quotables:
Mondeaux: Energy Secretary Granholm said earlier this week she expects the LNG export pause to be over within a year, do you have a reaction to that?
Scalise: “They should end that ban immediately. If you look at their ban on LNG exports, when they announced it, there were a lot of projects here in America that immediately got halted and it emboldened Vladimir Putin. Why would Joe Biden want to put billions more in the pocket of Vladimir Putin and hurt American jobs at the same time? Because if you’re shutting down projects in America for LNG, liquefied natural gas, we were using that to help our friends in Europe. So now they have to get it from Russia, and Russia uses that money to fund the war against Ukraine.
“Here you have Biden passing regulations that raise costs on American families, kill American jobs, and put billions of dollars in the pocket of Vladimir Putin to fund his war against Ukraine. That’s the dumbest policy most people have ever heard of, and yet they’re continuing to carry it out. They should end that policy today.”
Mondeaux: What is your response to [the] Biden administration vowing to veto [the] Cutting Green Corruption and Taxes Act that is up for consideration this week — and your thoughts on next steps if legislation does pass Congress but is ultimately rejected by the president?
Scalise: “That just shows how extreme President Biden is. In his desire to raise taxes on lower and middle income families and to fight to defend slush funds. By getting rid of these green slush funds, they’re used to hand out favors to special interests in Washington at the expense of taxpayers all across America. This is a perfect example of Joe Biden willing to veto a bill that stands up for those hardworking families that Republicans are trying to protect from Joe Biden’s higher taxes.”
SURINAME PRESSES EXXON AND TOTALENERGIES TO COMBINE GAS DEVELOPMENTS: Suriname’s state-run oil company has started talks with Exxon and TotalEnergies to encourage joint development of natural gas fields that run between its maritime borders shared with Guyana.
Reuters reports that the talks come as Suriname looks to encourage foreign development in its energy production and help turn the country into a gas hub.
The early-stage efforts come as neighboring Guyana has seen major investments in its offshore oil sector in recent years—including from Exxon, which is in discussions to increase its operations in offshore oil and gas fields beyond its current production capacity of roughly 650,000 bpd. Read more on the effort here.
SOUTH AFRICA EYES CARBON OFFSET TRADING: The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which manages Africa’s largest stock and bond exchanges, will start trading carbon offsets in the next two months, Bloomberg reports.
As the publication outlines, the company has formed a partnership with Xpansiv Ltd., which provides support to trade carbon credits and renewable energy certificates.
“We have had at least five sellers wanting to register,” JSE’s Chief Executive Officer Leila Fourie told Bloomberg on Monday. “We expect that the first credits to be issued will be around April and May.”
South Africa is the continent’s largest emitter of greenhouse gasses – but not the region’s biggest producer of carbon credits. However, it’s expected that the market for offsets could skyrocket, with the country gradually beefing up its carbon tax.
A 10,000 foot view: The global carbon credits market could reach $1 trillion annually, up from $2 billion today, according to estimates from BloombergNEF. Read more on that here.
ITALY’S TERNA TO INVEST $18 BILLION IN GRID BY 2028, EYES M&A: Italian grid operator company Terna said yesterday it will invest $18 billion in its power grid in the next five years, as part of an investment to help the country integrate new renewable energy resources and help increase network flexibility.
As Reuters reports, the $18 billion investment will represent a 65% jump in capital expenditure compared to a previous strategy. It will also include new regulations that will give incentives to power distributors “to sell some assets that could be useful for our transmission activity,” Terna CEO Giuseppina Di Foggia told the outlet, without elaborating further. Read more on that here.
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