Original energy and environment stories from all sides of the issues: Energywire, Greenwire, E&E Daily, Climatewire and E&E News PM. RT not endorsements.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Environment, announced this afternoon he would open an investigation into the Texas grid failure that left millions of people without power in freezing conditions.
Duke Energy Corp. intends to close the rest of its coal plants by 2035 and more than double its renewable capacity by 2030 as part of a massive — and expensive — clean energy push.
California Rep. Katie Porter spent the last 2 years drawing out some of the most revealing, and damning, admissions from executives of major banks and pharmaceutical companies. She could now be poised to do the same with leaders of the oil & gas industry.
Utah Sen.-elect Mitt Romney signaled he may focus on climate change when he's sworn in January, telling E&E News he sees climate change as a "critical area."
A 2019 hunting trip to Mongolia by Donald Trump Jr. cost taxpayers as much as $114,000 and at times sparked both alarm and behind-his-back laughter among State Department employees, newly released government records show.
The "silent crisis" of missing and murdered indigenous women is an environmental issue affected by the boom and bust of U.S. oil and gas development, says freshman
@RepDebHaaland
, one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress.
Three-fourths of Texas oil and gas executives say the prospect of a Joe Biden presidency is the top threat to their "economic well-being" over the next year, according to a new poll from the University of Houston.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last night introduced a proposal to boost sales of clean cars, in a rebuke to the Trump administration and a sign of Democrats' broader strategy on climate change legislation.
An audacious messaging campaign accused white environmentalists of hurting black communities by pushing radical climate policies. It accidentally left a trail leading to Chevron.
Company News: We are excited to announce that
@politico
has entered into an agreement to acquire E&E News.
POLITICO will keep the E&E News brand and its journalism in place and invest resources to expand E&E News' audience and impact. Read on ⬇️
NEWS ALERT: Dominion Energy and Duke Energy said today they are canceling the Atlantic Coast pipeline, citing ongoing delays and concerns over the $8 billion project's economic viability.
A bill from Rep. Joe Neguse would direct GAO and the National Academy of Sciences to make recommendations for whether Congress should establish a nonpartisan office—comparable to CBO—to "score" the net GHGs likely to be produced by any single bill.
The Royal Bank of Scotland won't offer financial backing for energy developers in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to an updated policy on environmental, social or ethical risks that the bank released yesterday.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is still planning to attend a fundraiser today hosted by the co-founder of a liquefied natural gas company, despite criticism from environmentalists.
@EPAAWheeler
Thanks for your readership
@EPAAWheeler
!
And here's the link to the story that is open for all to read:
Trump admin finalizes clean cars rollback
More to come in today's Greenwire
House Oversight and Reform ranking member James Comer assailed President Joe Biden’s energy policies on Sunday and launched a wide-ranging investigation of several federal agencies.
Calif. Rep. Ro Khanna, a top Oversight and Reform Committee lawmaker, said he plans to invite fossil fuel and social media executives to testify on climate disinformation in the coming months -- and that executives could face subpoenas if they don't show.
Melanie Nakagawa will become the top climate staffer on the White House National Security Council, working on everything from the Paris Agreement to President-elect Biden's objective of integrating climate change into all aspects of U.S. foreign policy.
NEWS 🚨: William Happer, a chief critic of climate science in the White House, will leave his post as a senior director on the National Security Council on Friday.
"It's just heartbreaking what it is they're proposing to do. Tearing apart these communities and destroying these significant desert ecosystems is unconscionable, and we just can't stand by and let this happen."
-
@SierraClub
managing attorney Gloria Smith
Democrat Joe Biden is barring lobbyists from his presidential transition team and indicating he won't let fossil fuel company officials in either. The prohibitions are part of an ethics plan made public yesterday by the Biden-Harris Transition Team.
In the final days of the 116th Congress and the Trump presidency, Sen. Michael Bennet is laying the groundwork for a major conservation jobs push next year.
The Bureau of Land Management is temporarily withdrawing 347,525 acres from a planned Wyoming oil and gas lease sale set for next week because the 282 parcels in question intersect greater sage grouse habitat.
A photo obtained by E&E News under FOIA shows the secure phone booth then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt could use to isolate himself. It cost roughly $43,000 overall to install in a former storage closet.
NEWS: Federal
#climate
report sends dire warning and makes clear climate change is endangering the lives and safety of Americans. The National Climate Assessment, a report mandated by Congress, says continued
#fossilfuel
consumption will make it worse
Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who blocked a major disaster-relief bill Tuesday, has asked Presidents Trump and Obama on at least four occasions to approve disaster aid for his home state and for his own congressional district.
NEWS ALERT: A federal judge in Montana has handed the Trump administration a stunning rebuke, ruling today that William Perry Pendley is illegally heading the Bureau of Land Management.
EPA has released a new forward-looking proposal that puts fighting climate change and advancing environmental justice at the center of the agency's agenda.
News🚨: The Biden admin today released a much anticipated report on how to reform the country’s oil and gas program that suggests higher royalties and more restrictions on where the oil industry can drill on public land.
@hroxaner
has the details
A clean electricity standard could cut 80% of power emissions by 2030 without spiking prices, according to new analysis that bolsters the Biden administration's preferred decarbonization policy.
Happy to announce exciting changes to our newsroom leadership lineup (1/2):
@amycarlile
to be managing editor
@katiejhowell
named Greenwire editor
@JoelKirkland2
will be enterprise editor
@EricaMartinson
hired as natural resources editor
Details here:
⚡SCOOP: Scientists at General Motors and Ford — two of America’s largest automakers — conducted research in the 1960s showing that car emissions contributed to
#climate
change.
A coalition of grid companies has fired off a new argument on why green energy advocates should embrace strategic, long-haul, high-voltage transmission lines and why the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission needs to make that happen.
In a Senate chamber that's controlled by lawmakers friendly to fossil fuel interests, Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is a ray of light for the solar industry.
🎉 Congratulations to E&E News Executive Editor Cy Zaneski and Managing Editor
@amycarlile
for being named in the top 250 most influential list for Climate/Environment from
@washingtonian
👏👏👏👏
On this day 20 years ago, E&E News opened its doors.
Look for E&E News 'blasts from the past' of the last two decades with
#EENews20years
Please post and share your favorite E&E News memories and stories with that hashtag too!
News 🚨: Biden has chosen Charles “Chuck” Sams III, a fmr longtime admin of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, to lead the National Park Service. If confirmed, he'd become the first Native American to lead the agency.
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) is crafting clean energy legislation that she hopes will attract centrist lawmakers and become a cornerstone of President Biden's climate plan.
The Trump administration released a final rule rewriting Obama-era standards for blowout preventers that it says will be a "safer, smarter improved rule" to prevent another Deepwater Horizon disaster. But critics aren't buying a word of it.
"I don't see how you have a national clean energy standard without significant federally mandated or incented transmission build cutting across regions of the country," said Travis Kavulla, fmr Montana utility commissioner, now with the R Street Institute.
"This is about whether or not we respect science," David Sirota, an investigative reporter, former Bernie Sanders staffer and co-writer of "Don’t Look Up," told E&E News in a Zoom interview last week.
Don't miss Q&A
#DontLookUp
The Biden administration is planning to unveil new emissions rules for cars tomorrow during an event at the White House featuring industry officials and electric vehicles, according to three sources.
Rep. Grijalva was at a Capitol Hill bar when Interior Secretary Zinke fired off a tweet calling him a drunkard and suggestively referring to the same bar
#TuneInnForMore
, multiple sources told E&E News.
"The president is missing an opportunity on the climate issue to do something which is in line with conservative values and to make our nation stronger and better" --
@DanielPalken
@citizensclimate
⏰ ⏰ The Cato Institute quietly shut down a program that for years sought to raise uncertainty about climate science, leaving the libertarian think tank co-founded by Charles Koch without an office dedicated to global warming.
News🚨: President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate Brenda Mallory to lead the Council on Environmental Quality, a White House role critical to his efforts to address environmental justice and climate change, according to two sources.
NEWS 🚨: A federal judge today struck down the Trump administration’s rule that significantly narrowed the scope of Clean Water Act jurisdiction.
@pamelalauren
with the details.
More
#WOTUS
in tmrw's Greeenwire
Since 2010, interstate pipelines have exploded or caught fire 137 times, according to an E&E News analysis. In about 90% of those cases, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration sought no fine.
Nine Northeastern states and Wash, DC commit to forming a cap-and-trade system for the transportation sector, embarking on one of the most ambitious regional programs ever undertaken to cut carbon dioxide.
.
@CorbinHiar
was barred from
#EPA
conference on
#PFAS
#chemicals
this morning and he still did his job to cover the summit to the best of his ability under the circumstances.
Here's the story:
"I think that's why you're seeing this barrage of pro-oil ads right now. The industry is realizing that the climate science denial strategy is kaput. It's been revealed, and it's waning in its efficacy," said
@amywestervelt
@WeAreDrilled
.
Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee wants NOAA to put new limits on a Navy testing program that he says will hurt endangered orcas and other marine life in waters off the coast of his home state.
Brenda Mallory, who was nominated to lead the Council on Environmental Quality, is filling out her staff with policy veterans. Here's a rundown of who they are.
One of the nation's oldest and largest refineries repeatedly violated allowable limits on emissions of a damaging respiratory pollutant, a federal judge ruled yesterday in a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club.
David Hayes, President Biden's special assistant for climate policy, says in a new article that FEMA should encourage states to develop "climate resilience plans" to help them incorporate risks from warming into disaster recovery.
President Biden will sign a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge today, hitting the brakes on his predecessor's "energy dominance" era.
"I'm challenging an incumbent who's been there for 45 years...And people need to see me, look me in the eye and make sure that they have a real sense of who I am," said
@AlyseGalvin
, who is challenging Alaska's Rep. Don Young (R).
New Jersey officials have called for a ban on gas car sales by 2035, a move that would make the state the first outside California to enact such a policy.
News 🚨: Trump administration will propose to severely restrict the number of wetlands and waterways covered by the Clean Water Act in an announcement expected next week, acc. to talking points obtained by
@ArielWittenberg
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) told E&E News that she wants the Senate to vote on the $1.7 trillion social spending and climate bill rather than try to pass key provisions individually.
The U.S. could save more than $1 trillion over the long term by removing roughly 1 million homes from flood-prone areas and relocating residents to higher ground, according to a massive new study funded by the government.
The nation's life-sustaining electrical grid is stumbling into a risk-strewn, low-carbon transformation with inadequate plans, systems and policies in place, a congressionally established expert committee warned yesterday.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan today directed top aides to take "immediate and affirmative steps" to engage with pollution-burdened, underserved communities, including on enforcement, permitting, rulemaking and other policies.
A rapidly warming world will hit humans and nature harder than expected, a landmark climate report released today by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns — and we’re far from prepared to deal with the fallout.
More than 4,000 people joined Citizens' Climate Lobby's two-day virtual conference this weekend with remarks from bipartisan Senate leadership on climate.
Three Wall Street giants — BlackRock Inc., the Vanguard Group and State Street Corp. — have recently amassed enough power to steer corporate America toward a more climate-conscious future. But critics say they have historically refrained from doing so.
EPA is left with fewer options to curb planet-warming emissions after the Supreme Court today hobbled the agency’s powers in a landmark climate decision.
Morgan Stanley will become the first major U.S. bank to commit to publicly disclosing the greenhouse gas emissions from its lending portfolio, a milestone as financial institutions around the world see more scrutiny for their carbon-intensive investments.
A bribery scandal linked to a just-resigned Trump EPA official centers on a pollution-belching plant whose neighbors are fuming about racial disparity, corruption and a sluggish federal response. "Everybody treats this community bad," one resident said.
"As a person of color [being here], it shows this movement isn't just for one people....In every single continent, in every single country, youth are rising up. It shows how interconnected and how united we are as one people in crisis."
#ClimateStrike