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WHAT TO MAKE OF TRUMP’S SOFTER TONE ON CLIMATE: President Trump and his White House are subtly shifting how they talk about climate change and environmental issues, even as they push ahead with boosting fossil fuel production and easing regulations.
Trump allies are noting the changes, which they say comes from pressure from his re-election campaign, which has noticed polls showing increasing concern about climate change and environmental protection, including among younger and suburban Republicans.
“The campaign is having some influence on the rhetoric coming out of the White House,” Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who led Trump’s EPA transition team, told Josh. “It’s in the direction of softening the rhetoric on some issues, including climate. However, I have seen no sign that any policies are being changed because of campaign considerations.”
The U.S. pledged Wednesday to work with Finland to help address challenges caused by the melting of sea ice in the Arctic, after a White House meeting between Trump and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.
“The Arctic provides new economic opportunities, but environmental changes such as the diminishing of sea ice raise environmental concerns,” the statement said. “The United States and Finland share a commitment to clean air and water and environmental protection.”
The U.S. also pledged to help combat black carbon emitted from coal plants, which has contributed to warming of the Arctic.
Trump has shown a shift in tone in other recent circumstances, delivering a speech in July defending his environmental record, and referencing climate change when he toured flooding in Houston last month.
“There is a thread of thought in the campaign that the environment in general and climate as a subset of that needs to be addressed with more moderation,” Mike McKenna, a lobbyist who led Trump’s Energy Department transition team, told Josh, while noting there is an “internal bright line” that Trump won’t cross to moderate the substance of his policy.
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MAJOR EMITTER PENNSYLVANIA TO JOIN REGIONAL CAP AND TRADE PROGRAM: Pennsylvania, America’s third largest carbon emitter, is joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade program covering the power sector in nine East Coast states.
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, announced Thursday his move to start the process of entering RGGI with an executive order.
Pennsylvania, a major producer of shale gas, will become the highest emitting state to enter RGGI. Roughly 30% of the state’s emissions come from the power sector.
Wolf previously signed an executive order aiming for Pennsylvania to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050 from 2005 levels.
States participating in RGGI have collectively reduced power sector carbon emissions by more than 45% since 2005, prompting other states to join.
New Jersey under Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is set to join in January.
US OIL GIANT CHEVRON ANNOUNCES NEW EMISSIONS GOALS: U.S. oil and gas major Chevron announced Thursday that it intends to reduce the intensity of its emissions — the emission rate of greenhouse gas per unit of energy produced — by up to 10% for oil production and by up to 5% for methane emissions from natural gas production over the next four years, measured from 2016 levels.
EPA ESCALATES FEUD WITH CALIFORNIA OVER POLLUTION: The Environmental Protection Agency continued its battle with California on Wednesday, accusing San Francisco of violating the Clean Water Act.
EPA says it identified violations of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits, citing discharges from San Francisco’s combined wastewater and sewer system based on inspections and field visits in 2015 and 2016 and subsequent data monitoring.
“The failure to properly operate and maintain the City’s sewage collection and treatment facilities creates public health risks,” the EPA said in a notice to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
EPA claims San Francisco’s failure to properly operate and maintain its sewage collection and treatment facilities has led to “substantial volumes of raw and partially-treated sewage to flow across beaches and into the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.”
San Francisco strikes back: Harlan L. Kelly, Jr., the commission’s general manager, rebutted EPA’s allegations, saying San Francisco has complied with the Clean Air Act, and has spent billions of dollars to improve its wastewater and sewer system.
“The combined sewer system ensures the capture of motor oil, pesticides, metals, trash and other street litter that would otherwise flow directly into San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean during storms,” Kelly said, according to the Washington Post.
EPA’s feud with San Franciscio comes after the agency last month said it wants Caifornia to withdraw more than 100 backlogged state plans to comply with federal air quality requirements and commit to redoing them. If California doesn’t, the EPA is threatening to withhold highway funds and permit approvals.
DEMOCRATIC STATES CELEBRATE COURT RULING KNOCKING EPA FOR WEAK ENFORCEMENT OF SMOG POLLUTION: Democratic states on Wednesday celebrated a federal court ruling finding the EPA has not done enough to force some Midwestern and Southern states to control smog pollution that blows into New York and other Northeast states.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals determined this week that EPA had erred by not imposing further “good neighbor” requirements on “upwind” states, forcing them to control their ozone pollution from traveling across state lines.
“Over two-thirds of New Yorkers regularly breathe unhealthy air due to smog pollution,” said New York attorney general Letitia James, who led the lawsuit and was joined by Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. “We will continue our battle to compel the Trump Administration to follow the law in our effort to fight this public health hazard and to uphold New Yorkers’ legal right to clean, healthy air.”
The court gave EPA until Oct. 28 to seek a rehearing of the case.
AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE BEEFS UP STAFF: API has added Shannon DiBari, Rhonda Bentz, and Bianca Domally to its senior staff, the oil and gas trade group announced Wednesday. DiBari is API’s new senior adviser to president and CEO Mike Sommers, after she previously worked as executive vice president and chief operating office of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Bentz has joined API as director of strategic initiatives and paid media, and Domally was hired to be the group’s financial controller.
The Rundown
Baltimore Sun Fight over which court will hear Baltimore’s global warming lawsuit against oil and gas companies reaches Supreme Court
Financial Times Saudi Arabia says oil production restored to pre-attack levels
New York Times In Houston, a rash of storms tests the limits of coping with climate change
Reuters Boom of planet-friendly funds will impact companies’ cost of capital: Black Rock
Calendar
THURSDAY | OCTOBER 3
House and Senate are out
