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RED STATES WARN EMISSIONS RULES THREATEN HIGHWAY FUNDING: Some states are warning the Environmental Protection Agency that its proposed vehicle emissions rules would dry up a key source of funding for new transportation infrastructure and stunt needed expansions and improvements to the nation’s roads.
Red states say the rules would dry up the highway trust fund: Five Western states asked EPA to reconsider the pace at which it proposes to impose stricter emissions regulations for model year 2027 and later vehicles so that infrastructure funding via the Highway Trust Fund, which is financed by the federal gasoline tax, doesn’t become a victim of a transition to EVs.
It’s one of several economic lines of attack that opponents of the proposed EV-forcing rules have leveled against them since EPA proposed them in April, the other leading one being the higher cost of battery-electric vehicles, especially semi-trucks, relative to combustion-driven models.
Demand and revenue: More EVs and fewer combustion engines means lower fuel demand and therefore less tax revenue from retail fuel, the logic goes.
“This would place significant downward pressure on highway and bridge investment, which already faces an investment backlog of $786 billion,” the states of Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming said in published comments to EPA last week, citing Department of Transportation estimates.
The states suggested EPA strengthen the emissions regulations for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles at a more gradual rate than proposed.
“A more gradual approach would provide policymakers more time to consider and find ways to make up for HTF revenue loss caused by EPA tailpipe emission rules so as to better fund needed highway investments that provide so much public benefit,” they said.
That’s so 2022: Some lawmakers favored a federal gas tax holiday last year to lessen the impact of rising gasoline prices. Eventually, President Joe Biden, preoccupied with the politics of high prices, endorsed a gas tax holiday, too, although it never happened.
Other Republicans and Democrats opposed it, and the most common source of opposition to the gas tax reprieve was worry that the highway trust fund would be strung out to dry.
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FIREFIGHTERS INCREASE PRESCRIBED FIRES IN THE WEST: As wildfires continue to tear through Canada at a record pace, the U.S. West Coast, typically a hotbed for intense and fast-spreading wildfires, even in the early part of the season, is already seeing some relief.
According to data from the National Interagency Fire Center, West Coast wildfires have burned through 644,918 acres in the U.S. so far this year— just slightly above half of the 10-year average of 1.1 million acres for this time of year.
That’s due in part to the dozens of atmospheric rivers and cold fronts that brought an unusual amount of snow and rain to Western states earlier this year, helping alleviate a period of extreme drought in the region. The wetter conditions have also allowed fire officials to begin conducting prescribed burns, in line with the U.S. Forest Service’s goal of burning or thinning 4 million acres of federal land in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Read more from WSJ here.
CLIMATE PROTESTER DISRUPTS COAL TRAINS TO AUSTRALIA’S MAIN EXPORT HUB: Nineteen trains that were ferrying coal to Australia’s largest export hub were disrupted today for hours when a 22-year-old climate protester suspended herself from two poles hanging over the trail racks.
The protester was later arrested at the scene and was affiliated with the group Blockade Australia, according to the group, which said the demonstration was “a response to Australia’s destruction of the climate.”
Australia has sought to pursue more ambitious climate targets but remains the world’s second-largest exporter of coal, triggering protests from groups like Blockade Australia. Others affiliated with the climate activist group also staged protests near the Port of Melbourne and the Port of Brisbane, the group said on Twitter.
“Like the hydra, Blockade Australia is BACK, disrupting three major ports across the continent, the group said. “The climate movement cannot be decapitated.”
EAST TEXAS RECEIVES DISASTER DECLARATION AFTER PUNISHING STORM: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for East Texas late yesterday, 48 hours after a severe storm battered the region and triggered blackouts for roughly 300,000 residents—many of whom remained without power through the weekend. The storm also came amid a punishing heat wave, which sent temperatures soaring into the triple digits in most of Texas.
As of this morning, around 100,000 homes and businesses in East Texas were still without power, and power company officials warned customers it may take upwards of a week for power to be restored.
Those without power won’t get relief from the heat anytime soon: Texas is known for its hot and humid summers, but much of the state remains under an excessive heat warning—with the heat index forecasted to be above 105 for most of the state for the next several days.
In the interim, the disaster declaration will allow the seven regions in East Texas that remain affected by the storm to use state resources for clean-up and response, including to set up temporary shelters for those without AC or power.
EUROPE IS ‘FASTEST-WARMING’ OF ALL WMO REGIONS, NEW REPORT FINDS: Europe had the warmest-ever summer on record in 2022 and has warmed twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to a sobering new report published today by the World Meteorological Organization and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). According to the report, temperatures on the continent rose to 2.3C above the pre-industrial average as of last summer, contributing to “thousands” of deaths.
The report, which was presented today at the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference’s sixth annual meeting in Dublin, estimates the damage from the high heat last summer totaled some $2 billion in damage, including from marine heat waves, floods, and other extreme weather events. Europe experienced several “exceptional” heat waves, the report said, with some countries seeing their highest-ever temperatures on record (including in the UK, where summer temperatures reached a record 104 degrees Fahrenheit).
“Summer was the hottest ever recorded: the high temperatures exacerbated the severe and widespread drought conditions, fuelled violent wildfires that resulted in the second largest burnt area on record, and led to thousands of heat-associated excess deaths,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told reporters. The report said that climate events contributed to 16,000 reported fatalities in Europe last summer —99.6% of which were linked directly to heat waves.
Scientists have said 2023 could be the hottest year on record globally, with C3S forecasters putting global temperatures this May at the second-warmest in the last 30 years.
INDIAN EXECUTIVE SEES RUSSIA ACCOUNTING FOR 30% OF ITS 2023 OIL IMPORTS: Russian oil is expected to account for up to a third of Indian Oil’s crude imports in the current financial year, a company executive said this weekend—a tenfold increase from its Russian oil imports during the previous fiscal year. The new estimates also underscore the degree to which Western sanctions and the G-7-led Russian oil price cap have reshuffled global oil markets and led to Russia finding new buyers in Beijing and New Delhi. Read more from Reuters here.
JAPAN AUTO GROUP ASKS FOR ADDITIONAL SOFTENING OF EV CREDIT RULES: A top Japanese auto trade group wants the Treasury Department to further liberalize the constraints of the 30D consumer clean vehicle tax credit after the Biden administration established its critical minerals agreement with Japan and proposed guidance to allow more EVs to be eligible for subsidies than would have been under a more strict implementation of the credit’s rules.
The history: The Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association and governments and individual manufacturers in Japan, South Korea, and Europe were collectively outraged at the Inflation Reduction Act because of its strong preference for domestically manufactured components and North American assembly requirements and asked Treasury for maximum flexibility in its final regulations.
Treasury subsequently proposed to implement flexibility by expanding the definition of what constitutes a free trade agreement, as well as “constituent materials,” and crafting a new critical minerals agreement with Japan so as to extend subsidies to more Japanese products.
JAMA, in comments filed with Treasury on Friday, said the critical minerals agreement marks a “positive step forward” but said the implementation guidance that the department proposed in March would slow decarbonization in transport by choking sales and purchases.
“Building and operationalizing new facilities takes time, and the timelines associated with Section 30D’s critical minerals requirements remain very challenging,” JAMA said.
Remember the timelines: The credit requires that the critical minerals contained in the battery be extracted or processed in the U.S. or a country with which the United States has a free trade agreement or be recycled in North America. In 2023, that percentage is 40% and rises incrementally each year to reach 80% beginning in 2027.
Assembly still a problem for foreign automakers: The EV credit’s North American assembly requirement took effect immediately after the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August (as opposed to the other conditions, such the sourcing requirements).
That has helped to whittle down the number of qualifying vehicles. JAMA said the assembly requirement diminishes the effect of the credit for limiting consumer options and requested that vehicles assembled in Japan not be excluded from the credit.
The Rundown
Washington Post What central Florida is doing to avert disastrous flooding when the next big hurricane hits
Bloomberg China’s plan to boost rural EV sales meets with skeptical buyers
New York Times ‘Unstoppable’: Massive Canadian blazes test foreign firefighters
Reuters UK’s Labour vows to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030
