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BATTLE OF THE STATES: States are getting litigious and suing or threatening legal action over the effect climate change-related laws passed by jurisdictions outside their borders have on their own industries.
It shows how the courts are an increasingly crucial venue for deciding the direction of climate policy beyond the halls of Congress and state legislatures.
The latest: Montana, along with several fossil energy trade groups, sued Portland, Oregon, yesterday, asking a federal court to enjoin laws and policies passed to support the city’s climate action plan on the grounds that they discriminate against the transport of oil, natural gas, and other petroleum products like propane.
Portland, home of a large international port and the terminating point of both key rail and pipeline infrastructure, has a binding policy that restricts transportation of fossil fuels bound for external destinations through the city, instead “[limiting] fossil fuel distribution and storage facilities to those necessary to serve the regional market.”
The city’s zoning code also prohibits the construction of new “bulk fossil fuel terminals,” defined to include marine, railroad, or pipeline transport facilities, and limits the expansion of existing facilities.
Existing facilities “serve the Portland and regional market almost exclusively” and cut off Montana and its business interests from key export markets in Asia, the complaint states, arguing the city’s laws and policies burden interstate commerce in violation of the due process clause and the dormant and foreign commerce clauses.
Next door in North Dakota, Republican Gov. Doug Burgum and the state Industrial Commission have threatened to sue Democratic-led Minnesota over its new clean electricity standard after legislators declined to adopt amendments Burgum and the commission had lobbied for to protect North Dakota’s electricity generators.
Gov. Tim Walz signed the standard into law on Feb. 7, which requires that electric utilities generate or procure increasing shares of power from carbon-free sources beginning in 2030 and reach 100% carbon-free power in 2040. Solar, wind, hydroelectric, hydrogen, and biomass resources count as carbon-free under the standard, although fossil generation with carbon capture and sequestration is excluded — something Burgum and co. take issue with considering the amount of electricity North Dakota generates and exports to MISO and Minnesota.
Burgum has said the standard implicates the interstate commerce clause and that passage of Minnesota’s standard brings with it “certainty of a lawsuit.” Walz said he’s confident the law will stand up in court and added at the Feb. 7 bill signing that his state “Minnesota’s not staking our future on coal and carbon.”
What it means: After Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a number of interest groups that backed the law said the ball is now in states’ courts to pass and implement laws supplementing the Biden administration’s new federal climate policies.
These threats of litigation put added pressure on those lawmakers to make sure their climate policies are ambitious but also legally firm enough to survive the ever inevitable court challenge.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Jeremy Beaman (@jeremywbeaman) and Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). Email [email protected] or [email protected] 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.
HAPPENING TODAY: EPA administrator Michael Regan is visiting East Palestine, Ohio, where he will meet with city, state and federal officials as they look to respond to the catastrophic train derailment and address residents’ concerns. He will also hold a press conference with state EPA officials at 1:45 p.m.
The two U.S. senators from Ohio, Sherrod Brown (D) and J.D. Vance (R), said today that they are also visiting East Palestine.
NEW JERSEY TO REQUIRE ALL NEW CAR, TRUCK SALES BE ZERO-EMISSION BY 2035: Gov. Phil Murphy said yesterday that he will move to make all new car and truck sales zero-emission by 2035, joining a handful of other states in adopting the ambitious electric vehicle target first set by California.
Murphy announced the new timeline for phasing out sales of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles during a speech at Rutgers University. There, he outlined six new environment-related executive actions he will take to make the Garden State more “green,” including setting a goal of reaching 100% clean energy by 2035 rather than 2050.
In setting the zero-emission vehicle target, Murphy will begin the adoption of the Advanced Clean Cars Act II, the standard set by California, which the state previously agreed to follow.
Other actions Murphy said he will take on clean energy targets include passing an executive order with a goal of installing all zero-carbon-emission space heating and cooling systems in 400,000 homes and 20,000 commercial properties by 2030 and using $70 million in state proceeds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative auction proceeds to fund local government purchases of all-electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks and associated charging infrastructure. Read more about the effort here.
NORD STREAM LATEST – RUSSIA DEMANDS US PROVES INNOCENCE: Russia called on the U.S to prove it was not involved in the explosions along the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.
“It wouldn’t hurt if the US, which claims the monopoly on the truth, shifted from empty accusations directed at us to the matter at hand and at least try to prove it wasn’t involved in the destruction of the gas pipelines,” Igor Girenko, a spokesperson for the Russian embassy to the U.S., said in a statement.
The embassy cited a recent Substack post from U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claiming that the Nord Stream blasts were a long-planned, covert operation carried out by Navy divers operating under the cover of NATO military exercises.
Hersh cited just one anonymous source in the lengthy post, which has been intensely scrutinized.
U.S. national security and intelligence officials have strongly denied the report. State Department spokesman Ned Price said yesterday that the U.S. had nothing to do with the explosions, telling reporters that “it is pure disinformation that the United States was behind what transpired.”
DAVID MALPASS TO STEP DOWN AS WORLD BANK PRESIDENT: World Bank President David Malpass said yesterday that he plans to step down from the bank amid ongoing criticism for his remarks on climate change.
Malpass, who was tapped for the role by then-President Donald Trump in 2019, said yesterday that he will depart at the end of June, nearly one year before his five-year term was slated to expire next April.
“The last four years have been some of the most meaningful of my career,” Malpass said in a statement yesterday. “Having made much progress, and after a good deal of thought, I’ve decided to pursue new challenges.”
Malpass has sparked controversy for his remarks on climate change, and last fall, the Biden administration did not rule out the possibility of replacing him after he repeatedly dodged questions on climate change and the impact of fossil fuels at a Climate Week NYC event.
Asked several times at a New York Times event whether “man-made burning of fossil fuels” is contributing to global warming, Malpass declined to answer, before finally saying in response, “I don’t even know. I’m not a scientist.”
It was not immediately clear who the U.S. plans to tap for his replacement, though Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday that the administration is looking forward to a “swift nomination process” for his successor.
CHINA EXPECTED TO ADD 95-120 GW OF SOLAR POWER IN 2023: China is slated to add between 95 and 120 GW of solar power into operation in 2023 in what would be a record 30% jump in capacity.
Last year, Beijing brought 87.41 GW of new solar power into operation, pushing the total installed capacity to 392.61 GW, according to data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, or CPIA.
The expected growth in 2023 comes as China, the world’s biggest producer of solar panels, has struggled to expand to overseas markets, including the U.S., the EU, and India, due to more trade disputes and tougher competition overseas, CPIA chairman Wang Bohua said today. “Chinese solar firms should pay greater attention to the competition, as the U.S., EU and other countries are putting in place policies and making actual moves to support their local industry,” he said.
WORTH NOTING – WALES SCRAPS ROAD-BUILDING TO MEET CLIMATE GOALS: The Welsh government announced this week that it will scrap the vast majority of its planned road expansion projects in an ambitious effort to encourage a shift away from private cars and meet its goals for net zero carbon emissions.
The changes were announced Tuesday by Welsh deputy minister for climate change Lee Waters, who said in a letter to the Senedd that the approach taken for the last 70 years are “not working.”
“[W]e will not get to Net Zero unless we stop doing the same thing over and over,” he said, according to the Financial Times.
All road-expansion projects in Wales had been on pause since June 2021, when the government launched a review of the 55 road-building projects and how they would affect carbon emissions in the country.
The government said it would only consider road investment for projects that satisfy four criteria: Reducing carbon emissions and supporting a shift to public transport, biking, and walking; improving safety through “small-scale change;” helping the Welsh government adapt to the effects of climate change; and connecting residents to cities in a way that maximizes the use of public transportation.
The Rundown
Financial Times The US plan to become the world’s cleantech superpower
E&E News Crypto is here to save the grid. Or crash it.
Wall Street Journal U.S. and EU advance buyers’ club for EV battery minerals
Calendar
THURSDAY | FEBRUARY 16
12:30 pm. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a field hearing in Midland, Texas on expanding American energy. Learn more and watch the live stream here.
