IS CALIFORNIA DREAMING ABOUT A BIG LEGAL SHOWDOWN WITH THE EPA? California is expected to retaliate if the Environmental Protection Agency weaken emissions rules for vehicles covering model years 2022–2025, as the agency is soon expected to announce.

• Change in the air: The agency is expected to say this week that the Obama administraton’s 2022-2025 model year rules on fuel economy for cars and light-duty trucks, such as pickups and sport utility vehicles, must be revised, although the agency won’t immediately propose new requirements.

• Break away: As a result, California, which can set its own fuel-efficiency standards, could move to formally separate its rules with the national program set in Washington.

California intends to revoke its “deemed to comply” provision, according to Bloomberg, which says that carmakers that satisfy the EPA’s emissions standards automatically fulfill California’s rules, too.

Federal law since 1967 has allowed California, because of severe air pollution problems caused by smog, to set its own fuel efficiency regulations that are tougher than the national standards.

That basically means that California and other states that follow its tougher rules would require carmakers operating in those states to follow the more stringent state regulations, even if the EPA weakens the national standard.

• Program in ‘jeopardy’: A spokesman for the California Air Resources Board told the Washington Examiner it is “troubled” by reports that the EPA is looking to weaken the standards, and says that doing so would jeopardize the viability of the national program.

• Warning bells: Trump administration officials, including EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, have repeatedly said they prefer to maintain “one national program” for vehicle-emissions rules and want to avoid a legal battle with California.

Pruitt told Bloomberg this month that “California is not the arbiter of these issues,” and suggested the state should comply with the national standards.

California regulates greenhouse gas emissions at the state level, “but that shouldn’t and can’t dictate to the rest of the country what these levels are going to be,” he said.

• Big impact: If the national rules are weaker than state standards, automakers would face a patchwork of efficiency regulations.

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JUDGE’S ORDER COULD MEAN LESS COAL MINING: A judge is forcing the Trump administration to sit down with environmental groups to figure out how to balance climate change concerns with western mining that supplies 40 percent of the nation’s coal.

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris in Montana issued a ruling Monday that the Interior Department must evaluate climate change before approving coal mining leases. The analysis could limit the amount of coal allowed to be mined.

• Green victory? Environmentalists applauded the ruling as a victory. They sued the Bureau of Land Management for not adequately evaluating alternatives to coal mining in its environmental review of mining plans, required under National Environmental Policy Act.

• Falling short of a ban: However, the judge did not grant a motion to stop mining in the Powder River Basin region of Wyoming and Montana.

• 60-day sit down: Instead, Morris ordered the Interior Department, the industry and environmentalists to figure out how to resolve their concerns in 60 days.

COAL FAILING WITHOUT HELP FROM REGULATORS: Barely half of the nation’s fleet of coal plants earned enough revenue in 2017 to cover operating expenses, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

• ‘Massive’ closures: The report said the nation’s power grid may face a “massive” change and upheaval as more coal plants close because of poor economic performance.

The problem is particularly acute in the Southeast, where the distance from coal mines drives up prices for producing electricity from coal, the report showed.

• Keep on, hanging on: Nevertheless, coal plants are hanging on because of state regulators who continue to adjust rates to keep the plants online for reliability purposes.

“Still, many coal plants manage to shield themselves from economics,” Bloomberg report.

• Tweaking the system: “About 95 percent of those with operating expenses exceeding revenue operate in regions where regulators set rates.” Instead of allowing market forces to close the coal plants, “regulators and utilities often keep struggling plants open to ensure stability on their grids.”

ENERGY DEPARTMENT: REMOVING COAL FROM ENERGY MIX ‘THREATENS’ GRID: Coal plant retirements pose a threat to electric grid dependability if deep-freeze “bomb cyclones” become the norm, according to a Tuesday report from the Energy Department’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

The lab evaluated the effects of the January freeze that prompted many coal plants to raise their output to meet increased demand for heating.

• Resilience argument is back: “Coal was the most resilient form of power generation during the event and that removing coal from the energy mix would worsen threats to the electrical grid’s dependability during future severe weather events,” said Peter Balash of NETL’s Energy Systems Analysis team.

The key takeaway from the report is its warning “against overestimating the nation’s ability to respond to weather events if the current rate of coal plant retirements continues.”

• Less coal equals more blackouts: During the worst of the storm, Jan. 5–6, the “U.S. electricity market experience demonstrated that without the resilience of coal plants — its ability to add 24-hour baseload capacity — the eastern United States would have suffered severe electricity shortages, likely leading to widespread blackouts,” according to the report.

FEDS SHOULD TRACK METHANE EMISSIONS, SAYS NATIONAL ACADEMIES: The National Academies of Sciences wants the government to begin tracking methane emissions for reasons that aren’t limited to climate change.

A new National Academies study released Tuesday said the nation’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory should be updated in a way that would benefit the coal mining and oil and natural gas industries.

• ‘Beyond climate change:’ “There are a variety of reasons, beyond climate change, to measure, monitor, and track methane emissions,” according to a National Academies press release. “For example, monitoring of methane emissions is important to protecting the health and safety of workers in industries such as coal mining, and recovery of methane can have an economic benefit as a source of energy.”

• Climate hindrance: The report says the U.S. needs to incorporate advances in measuring emissions. But one hindrance to updating the U.S. emissions inventory has been the limited focus of using it to meet U.s. obligations under the United Nations framework for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study.

• EPA funded it: The study was funded by the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and the Energy Department on ways to update the Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which has not been revised in more than a decade and for the most part cannot be verified.

LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS EXPORTS QUADRUPLED IN 2017: U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas quadrupled in 2017, reaching 1.94 billion cubic feet per day, according to a report released Tuesday morning by the Energy Information Administration.

• Destined for gas: As LNG exports increased, shipments went to more destinations.

All of the LNG was shipped from Louisiana’s Sabine Pass terminal, reaching 25 countries.

More than half of the exports went to three countries: Mexico, South Korea and China.

Mexico received the largest amount of LNG, at 20 percent, as the U.S. neighbor saw greater natural gas demand from its power generation sector and experienced delays in construction of domestic pipelines.

• ‘Energy dominance’: The U.S. became a net natural gas exporter in 2017, shipping more natural gas to other countries than it receives each year as imports. The exports are key to Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda.

EPA HOSTS FINAL CLEAN POWER PLAN HEARING IN WYOMING:  The EPA on Tuesday in Gillette, Wyo., is hosting its final public hearings on its move to repeal the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.

• Hear me out: The EPA had planned one public hearing on the subject, which it held in November over two days in Charleston, W.Va., the heart of coal country.

But it later scheduled new hearings to be held in San Francisco, Kansas City, Mo., and Gillette after the agency was criticized for not conducting a transparent review process.

• Battleground: Groups and individuals scheduled to speak in support of repeal include Cloud Peak Energy, which mines coal in the Powder River Basin, the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute, and Sens. John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, both Republicans representing the state.

Opponents of the plan such as the American Lung Association and National Wildlife Federation also plan to speak.

• Coming to town: The hearing comes as Pruitt is expected to visit Wyoming’s main coal-producing region this week to observe the state’s coal-mining operations, according to the Associated Press.

Wyoming is the nation’s leading producer of coal, accounting for about 40 percent of total U.S. production.

HEALTH OF THE POTOMAC RIVER HAS IMPROVED, BUT DON’T GO SWIMMING JUST YET: The quality of the Potomac River, the source for drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas, is improving quicker than regional conservationists expected, but they warned the public should not try to go for a swim just yet.

• Big ‘B:’ The river scored a “B” in the Potomac Conservancy’s 2018 State of the Nation’s River report released Tuesday.

• Ten-year high:The grade is the highest it has received in the 10-year history of the study.

Just seven years ago, the river’s high pollution levels — based on the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment — had earned in a “D.” The river saw improvement in 2013 when it scored a “C,” and again in 2016 as it hit a “B-.”

ZINKE’S NEW OUTDOOR RECREATION PANEL INCLUDES ALMOST ALL INDUSTRY ADVISERS: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has created a new outdoor recreation advisory committee made up almost entirely of representatives from the industry.

Zinke created the “Made in America” Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee in November to advise him on public lands’ issues. The Interior has appointed 15 members to it, nearly all of whom work in the outdoor recreation industry. The lone exception is Linda Craighead, the assistant secretary of parks and tourism at the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.

• Company men: Its members include officials representing companies with Natural Park Service contracts, such as those in the hospitality and food service sectors, as well as individuals from the manufacturing, fishing, boating, and all-terrain vehicle industries, which have a financial stake in Interior’s policy decisions.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports, Zinke declined to appoint to the committee nominees offered by the Outdoor Industry Association, which advocates for people who engage in nonmotorized activities, such as mountain climbing, hiking, and kayaking, on public lands.

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS SUE EPA FOR EASING RULES ON ‘MAJOR’ POLLUTERS: A coalition of environmental groups sued the EPA Monday for withdrawing a policy that imposed strict limits on hazardous air pollutants from factories, plants and other types of facilities considered “major” polluters.

• Major move: Under the “once-in-always-in” policy, established in 1995, major polluters failing to meet certain emission thresholds were required to meet those standards from then on, even if the facility made changes to reduce its pollution.

With the new Trump administration policy, issued in January, facilities labeled as “major sources” of pollution may be reclassified as “area” sources when they limit their potential to emit pollution. The EPA says the old policy discouraged facilities from implementing pollution control technology.

• Talk about it: Environmentalists say the EPA’s change would allow facilities to emit more pollution. Seven environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council, filed suit in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing the EPA violated the law by not subjecting the move to public comment.

ENERGY DEPARTMENT HANDS OUT FIRST SOLAR ENERGY AWARDS: Energy Secretary Rick Perry dealt out the first of advanced manufacturing award money Tuesday to Maryland-based SolarWindow.

The company announced the grant, but did not disclose the amount in the early morning announcement.

The company makes a window-covering film that turns the windows into solar energy-generating panels.

• Turning buildings into power plants: “SolarWindow is the developer of transparent electricity-generating glass, which when fabricated into windows, could turn entire buildings into vertical power generators,” the company said.

• Extra help: The award includes technical assistance from the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other lab complexes.

Perry announced the renewable energy awards soon after President Trump announced he would be impose tariffs on solar imports, despite wide protests from the solar industry.

The company estimates that there is a $100 billion market for their product.   

RUNDOWN

Reuters OPEC, Russia consider 10-20 year oil alliance

New York Times The EPA says it wants research transparency. Scientists see an attack on science.

E&E News Meet Trump’s new climate guy

Washington Post Shell just outlined a radical scenario for what it would take to halt climate change

Politico Records, Zinke’s office refute Scott’s framing of impromptu oil-drilling reversal

Bloomberg How California taught China how to sell electric cars

NPR Energy supplies and prices have grown more unpredictable