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THE WEEK AHEAD IN THE HOUSE: House lawmakers are scheduled to be back from recess on Tuesday, and there’s a bill being considered for the floor that aims to protect the sale of internal combustion engines.
Led by Republican Rep. John Joyce, the bill would amend the Clean Air Act and block the Environmental Protection Agency from granting waivers for regulations that “ban the sale or use of new motor vehicles with internal combustion engines.” The legislation, introduced in March, will be considered by the House Rules Committee when lawmakers return this week.
What this is in response to: Republicans have been pouncing on states such as California that have passed strict vehicle emissions standards, with waivers from the Biden administration to do so. In August, California’s air regulator banned the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, while also requiring that 35% of all new passenger cars sold by 2026 have no emissions. This threshold would increase to 68% by 2030.
The decision was made possible by the EPA in 2022, when the agency reinstated California’s Clean Air Act Waiver to restore the state’s authority to set and enforce its own emissions standards rather than follow the federal government’s.
Joyce’s state of Pennsylvania is one of the 17 that has followed California’s rules (although it may not sign on to the new zero-emissions rules), and Joyce said in July that “California regulators shouldn’t have the power to determine what vehicles are sold to families in Pennsylvania.”
The bill was passed by the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee at the end of July, before lawmakers headed out to recess. If passed by the House Rules Committee, the bill could be considered as soon as this Wednesday.
The bill’s chances: In a GOP majority, it’s likely for the bill to find success in passing the House – but the upper chamber is a different story. Two Democrats (or independents) joining Republicans could bring the measure to the finish line. We have our eyes on Sen. Joe Manchin, who has knocked the EPA’s proposed vehicle emission standards before and has become the Biden administration’s most vocal Democratic critic on environmental policy.
But remember: The White House has final say, and will more than likely veto the measure if it comes to the president’s desk.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) and Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99). 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.
G-20 SUMMITS RESULTS IN LITTLE AGREEMENT: The G-20 summit in New Delhi yielded little on setting major climate goals, with leaders having disagreements on commitments to reduce fossil fuel use, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing renewable energy targets.
One major hurdle was a proposal by Western countries to reduce GHG levels by 60% by 2035, which was opposed by Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and India during meetings, as reported by Reuters.
What they did agree on: The G-20 leaders did agree broadly to pursue tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030 and accepted the need to reduce unabated coal power, however.
What their agreement left out: The declaration that was adopted by the G-20 did not mention cutting GHG emissions. Furthermore, while the countries agreed that “national circumstances” will be considered in the reduced use of “unabated coal power,” these conversations did not mention the decreased use of crude oil – hinting that oil-abundant countries like Saudi Arabia prevailed during the negotiations.
The group also did not reach agreement during previous ministerial meetings on environment and energy, and the declaration does not commit to reaching net zero commitments faster than 2050, a goal G-7 nations were pushing for.
Why this matters: What came out of the G-20 summit is likely to lay the groundwork of the upcoming COP28 U.N. climate summit in the United Arab Emirates later this year.
AIR POLLUTION COULD MEAN HIGHER RATES OF BREAST CANCER: Air pollution has been linked to higher incidences of breast cancer, according to a new study conducted by the National Institutes of Health.
As reported by our Gabrielle Etzel, researchers with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute published a joint study on Monday finding that living in an area with high levels of particulate matter air pollution is associated with an increased incidence of breast cancer.
Particulate matter is a combination of solid and liquid air droplets and comes from a variety of sources, such as motor vehicle exhaust, combustion energy production, industrial emissions, and fire smoke.
This type of air pollution has also been correlated with increasing incidences of dementia, as well as other acute health problems for those with asthma or cardiovascular disease and pregnant women. More on that here.
AN UPDATE ON LEE: Hurricane Lee is moving through the Atlantic Ocean as a Category 3 hurricane as of this morning – but is expected to strengthen again today and possibly reach Category 4 levels.
The hurricane is anticipated to reach Florida on Monday, followed by the Carolinas on Tuesday. As of roughly 8:45 a.m. this morning, Lee was located north of Puerto Rico, according to ABC News, but was not reported affecting the northern Caribbean islands other than bringing large rip currents.
Lee itself is expected to stall in the middle of the ocean for the next few days, and proceed to move north by the middle to the end of the week.
Just last week, Lee was one of two hurricanes that leaped to Category 5 intensity in just a matter of two days – joining a list of storms that have reached top-tier levels of strength in every ocean basin within the same year, a record-breaking feat.
According to an analysis by the Washington Post published last Friday, a combination of factors, such as human-induced climate change and a band of warm ocean water, otherwise known as El Niño, have heated waters to record levels this year, setting the foundation for the new phenomenon. The Copernicus Climate Service of the European Union announced last week that the planet’s oceans reached the warmest level on record in August.
SINKING ISLANDS’ PLEA ON CUTTING CARBON EMISSIONS: The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea – a U.N- created body – will be asked to decide whether the United Nations’ ocean pollution laws also apply to carbon dioxide emissions, as a group of nine small island nations are mounting a legal push to force countries to cut emissions causing their island to sink.
As Bloomberg outlines, with sea levels rising, some island countries, such as Tuvalu and Vanuatu, face an existential crisis of being completely submerged by the end of the century. Tuvalu’s capital, Funafuti, could be flooded by 2050 if sea levels continue to rise.
The latest legal effort comes as a number of small island states and developing nations assert that the globe is acting too slowly to tackle the issue of climate change – and they’re facing the direct consequences of it. The question that will be brought to the tribunal will be whether “pollution” includes carbon dioxide. A decision is expected in early 2024.
Just earlier this year, a broader group of vulnerable island nations, led by Vanuatu, asked the International Court of Justice to issue its assessment of what countries are required to do in order to ensure that global temperatures are kept below the Paris Agreement target of 2 degrees Celsius. More on that here.
GRANHOLM’S ELECTRIC CAR ROAD TRIP MISADVENTURES: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm encountered a few snags in her four-day electric vehicle road trip this summer, as chronicled by NPR.
At one point, she was due to recharge in the Atlanta suburb of Grovetown. But her advance team realized that there were only three working fast chargers at the station, and tough competition for them. They parked a car in front of one to reserve it for Granholm – blocking a family with a baby that was trying to recharge in the hot weather. The family ended up calling the police (but the Energy team wasn’t doing anything illegal).
Also, her caravan comprised a Cadillac Lyriq, an electric Ford F-150 and a Chevy Bolt. But it also included Secret Service agents driving gas-powered SUVs.
The Rundown
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