On July 17, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced a direct final rule and companion proposal extending several compliance deadlines related to coal combustion residuals (“CCR”). The direct final...more
On July 16, 2023, Climatewire (subscription required) released a peer review letter on EPA’s Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (SC-GHG), which got a fair bit of press last year, because EPA’s metric was $190/ton, even though...more
Today, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed for lack of standing claims by a number of states challenging the Biden Administration’s Interim Estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon. The Court had telegraphed this...more
The Fifth Circuit has stayed an order blocking Biden administration use of the “Interim Estimates” of the social cost of greenhouse gases. The Court did not leave much doubt that the administration will prevail on the...more
One of the results of the November election that makes me happiest is that I can now go back to being part of the loyal opposition. In other words, I know that the Administration and I share a common mission and common...more
Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed to withdraw Part I of the Trump Administration’s SAFE Rule, in which EPA had concluded that California’s regulation of motor vehicle GHG emissions was...more
4/27/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
California ,
Clean Air Act ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Motor Vehicles ,
National Highway Safety Administration ,
Proposed Rules ,
Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule (SAFE Rule) ,
Trump Administration ,
Waivers
The President today formally announced that the United States was pledging to reduce its emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030. The announcement isn’t a surprise, but that doesn’t lessen its importance. So large a...more
On Friday, the Principal Deputy Solicitor at the Department of Interior issued a memorandum on how DOI should balance the criteria in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in issuing leases for offshore wind. The new...more
The White House this morning released a fact sheet on “The American Jobs Plan,” also known as President Biden’s infrastructure plan. There’s a lot in here (as there should be for a couple of trillion dollars!), so today I’ll...more
Last month, I posted about the Biden administration’s effort to develop a new estimate of the social cost of carbon. The EO requires a new interim SCC within 30 days and a new longer-term SCC by January 2022...more
Last week, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed vacatur of the easement issued to the Dakota Access Pipeline by the Army Corps of Engineers. As I noted last month in connection with the Biden Executive Order...more
2/4/2021
/ Appeals ,
Biden Administration ,
Dakota Access Pipeline ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Impact Statements ,
Executive Orders ,
NEPA ,
New Legislation ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
US Army Corps of Engineers
Yesterday, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. It’s even more comprehensive than last week’s order. Indeed, my main reaction to the order isn’t to any of the specific...more
Among the important provisions of President Biden’s Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis is the requirement to review and revise estimates of the...more
Yesterday, President Biden hit the ground running on environmental policy, issuing an Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis. There’s a lot in it,...more
Over the past four years, while the Trump Administration did everything possible to ignore climate change, optimists continued to find progress at the state level. And while President-elect Biden has put together an A-team on...more
1/5/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Net Zero ,
Offshore Wind ,
Renewable Energy ,
Renewable Energy Incentives ,
State and Local Government ,
Transportation Industry ,
Trump Administration ,
Wind Power