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TRUMP PROPOSES ROLLBACK OF OBAMA AUTO EMISSIONS RULES: The Trump administration moved Thursday to replace strict Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for vehicles with weaker ones, claiming that less stringent mandates would make cars more affordable and safer.

Freeze tag: The Environmental Protection Agency, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said that the preferred outcome of the administration’s proposed plan would freeze fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions targets at 2020 levels through 2026, instead of raising them each year as previously required.

This approach could prevent 1,000 fatalities from crashes annually, and save Americans an average of roughly $2,340 on every new vehicle purchased, the administration claims.

A proposal by the two agencies, which jointly administer the corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, program, lays out eight options for new national fuel-economy standards for model years 2021-2026, with the freeze being its recommended action.

Delivered ‘promise’: “We are delivering on President Trump’s promise to the American public that his administration would address and fix the current fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards,” EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement Thursday. “Our proposal aims to strike the right regulatory balance based on the most recent information and create a 50-state solution that will enable more Americans to afford newer, safer vehicles that pollute less. More realistic standards can save lives while continuing to improve the environment.”

The core argument: The Trump administration claims that higher fuel standards make newer cars unaffordable, forcing drivers to use older, less-safe vehicles. It projects that owners of more efficient vehicles would drive more, because it would cost less to do so.

To a lesser extent, it also says that less fuel-efficient cars can reduce traffic fatalities because they are heavier.

Challenging California: The proposal sets up a fight with California, which has a waiver that allows it to set its own tougher fuel efficiency rules that other states may follow.

The Trump administration lays out a legal argument for revoking California’s waiver, to keep it following the national standards.

“Eliminating California’s regulation of fuel economy will provide benefits to the American public,” EPA and NHTSA say in their nearly 1,000 page proposed rule.

CALIFORNIA VOWS TO FIGHT TRUMP’S ‘BRAZEN’ ATTACK ON AUTO STANDARDS: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, vowed Thursday to fight for the right to have tougher fuel efficiency standards.

“The Trump Administration has launched a brazen attack, no matter how it is cloaked, on our nation’s Clean Car Standards,” Becerra said in a statement. “The California Department of Justice will use every legal tool at its disposal to defend today’s national standards and reaffirm the facts and science behind them. We are ready to do what is necessary to hold this administration accountable.”

California could move to formally separate its rules from the national program if EPA weakens the standards.

Automakers seek deal: Automakers had lobbied the Trump administration for more flexibility in the fuel rules. But they fear facing a patchwork of regulations preventing them from selling the same cars in every state, and have said they support a year-over-year increase in fuel efficiency standards.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, and the Association of Global Automakers applauded the administration’s action Thursday, but called in a joint statement for “substantive negotiations to begin” between the federal government and California.

The states that follow California, including New York and Pennsylvania, account for roughly a third of the nation’s auto market.

Room for a deal?: California officials and the Trump administration could still negotiate a way to mesh their standards, and maintain one national program that fulfills both of their goals.

“There is no justification for California to its have own standards,” EPA Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum told reporters on a press call Thursday. “Having said that, we are committed to working with California to find mutually satisfiable regulations. Soon after this proposal, we will get together again to see if we can find common ground. All of us want one national program. We are going to try to work it out.”

But California and 17 other states already sued the Trump administration in May for rejecting the Obama administration’s fuel-efficiency rules and beginning the process of weakening them.

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EPA DECIDES TO KEEP AND DEFEND OBAMA’S STRICT SMOG RULES: The Trump administration said Wednesday that it will maintain and defend in court the Obama administration’s 2015 national air quality standards for smog-forming ozone.

Justice Department attorneys working for the Environmental Protection Agency told a federal court that the agency could not justify rejecting the Obama-era ozone standard, because of past court rulings and its aversion to a drawn-out legal battle that would bring uncertainty to states needing to comply.

No legal case: “While EPA officials in the current administration may have supported making different judgments about the significance of background concentrations of ozone and how to judge what standards are requisite to protect public health and welfare, the agency at this time does not intend to revisit the 2015 rule,” the attorneys wrote in a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

When Scott Pruitt led the EPA, he tried to delay implementing the Obama administration’s ozone rule, but later backed off after 16 Democratic state attorneys general sued.

Obama’s rules: The Obama-era ozone regulations lowered the level of ozone allowed in a particular area from 75 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion. Ozone is a smog-causing gas that forms when chemical emissions are exposed to heat and sunlight. The Obama EPA said the tougher rules would prevent thousands of premature deaths.

But many areas of the country had not complied with the previous 75 parts per billion standard, set in 2008, before the Obama administration decided to make the standard more strict, critics said.

What now: Jeff Holmstead, a former deputy administrator of the EPA in the George W. Bush administration, said he expects the EPA to make its own ozone standard in the future.

“The EPA has said they are planning to do the next ozone review on time, meaning in less than two years. They can change it then,” Holmstead told Josh. “I wouldn’t say this means we will have a standard of 70 parts per billion forever going forward.”

2017 WAS THIRD-WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD, NOAA-LED INTERNATIONAL STUDY FINDS: An international study released Wednesday found that 2017 was the third-warmest year on record.

Only 2016 and 2015 were warmer, according to the 28th annual State of the Climate Report, dubbed the annual “checkup for the planet” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The findings: A wide array of environmental data, including global climate indicators and extreme weather events, were examined for the 300-page study spearheaded by NOAA scientists and published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society. More than 500 scientists in 65 countries were involved in the effort.

Among its findings was record-high greenhouse gas concentrations and a rise in sea level — now three inches above the measurement in 1993 — as glaciers melt away.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide reached 405 parts per million in the atmosphere in 2017 — a bump of 2.2 ppm above that found in 2016 — making for the highest concentration found in modern atmospheric measurement records and in ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years.

Global surface temperatures were 0.68 to 0.86 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1981 to 2010 average, depending on the dataset used, making 2017 the warmest non-El Nino year on record.

CORY BOOKER PRESSES WHEELER TO OVERTURN PRUITT’S WEAKER REVIEW OF TOXIC CHEMICALS: Sen. Cory Booker pressed Wheeler on Wednesday to overturn a policy imposed by his predecessor that he said stopped the EPA from evaluating indirect exposure to chemicals that leak into the air, ground, or water.

The New Jersey Democrat said the move by former EPA chief Scott Pruitt contradicts a law Congress passed by bipartisan margins during the last year of the Obama administration, known as the Toxic Substances Control Act, that set rules for how the agency determines health and safety risks of chemicals.

Real world impact: He challenged Wheeler to defend it before a family, his guests at the Senate hearing, whose child had died of cancer that Booker said was caused by exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE).

“EPA is now saying it will ignore the types of exposures that these and other families have so painfully endured when deciding TCE is safe,” Booker said. “I am really hopeful you will reverse course on what I think is a bad decision.” Booker said to Wheeler as the EPA leader testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Pruitt’s change: The TSCA law required the EPA, under new authority, to evaluate hundreds of chemicals to determine if they should face restrictions or be removed from the market.

But the EPA, in its review of the first batch of 10 chemicals, decided in most cases not to consider the effects of indirect exposure to the substances, including possible leaking into the air, ground, and water caused by improper disposal.

The agency, according to internal documents obtained by the New York Times, said it would evaluate only direct exposure to the chemicals in the workplace or elsewhere.

SAUDIS AND RUSSIANS BOOST OIL PRODUCTION IN JULY TO LOWER PRICES: Saudi Arabia and Russia are making good on their pledge to boost oil production to help lower rising global oil prices.

OPEC countries increased output in July, led by near-record production from Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The Saudis oil production rose by 230,000 barrels a day in July, to 10.65 million barrels per day.

Group think: The group’s 15 members collectively produced 32.6 million barrels per day, offsetting continued losses from Venezuela and Libya, and the expected onset of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Russia, a non-OPEC member, produced oil at its highest level since it joined the group’s effort last year to cut output to raise prices.

How we got here: In June, the oil cartel and nonmember countries, including Russia, agreed to increase output by 1 million barrels per day

The Trump administration had pressured OPEC to boost production after 18 months of cuts because higher global oil prices have led to rising gasoline prices for U.S. drivers.

RICK PERRY TOURS NEW YORK NUCLEAR PLANT, VOWING TO SAVE INDUSTRY: Energy Secretary Rick Perry toured a U.S. nuclear plant Wednesday for the first time, aiming to send a message of support for the fading industry.

Perry visited Exelon’s FitzPatrick nuclear plant in New York, participating in a discussion with lawmakers, industry executives, employees, and community leaders. The FitzPatrick Plant generates 838 megawatts of energy, enough carbon-free electricity to power 800,000 homes.

Life raft: “At DOE, we’re partnering with industry to develop ways to extend the safe and economic lifespan of our nuclear fleet,” Perry said. “And together, we’re addressing the technical challenges to bringing advanced and innovative technologies to the market.”

Nuclear power has become more costly than natural gas and renewable energy sources, causing it to lose market share.

The Energy Department, on the orders of President Trump, is considering using emergency powers to subsidize coal and nuclear plants slated to close, citing national security risks.

The U.S. depends on the nation’s 99 nuclear power plants for 20 percent of its electricity.

NATURAL GAS PIPELINE EXPLOSION IN TEXAS INJURES FIVE: Explosions of a natural gas pipeline in Midland County, Texas on Wednesday left five workers with critical burn injuries.

The explosions interrupted operations at the pipeline, located in the Permian Basin, America’s most prolific shale oil and gas region, according to Reuters.

Officials do not yet know the cause of the explosions.

Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan said it had “isolated” a portion of its El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline as a precaution.

RUNDOWN

Bloomberg Russia rolls back most of oil cuts as supply risks worsen

Politico Interior IG to scrutinize Zinke’s beer-making plans

New York Times Weary California firefighters mourn a fallen colleague

Wall Street Journal Tesla doubles loss but burns less cash than expected

Reuters Run your dishwasher when the sun shines: dynamic power pricing grows