EJ groups ask Biden to tackle dirty trucks: “President-elect Joe Biden is being asked to
prioritize zero-emissions trucks as a way to reduce pollution in historically neglected communities. "For decades, the freight industry has bombarded our communities with harmful pollution and other impacts," said a letter yesterday by 30 groups working on
environmental justice issues. The groups, located across the country from California to Texas and New York, appealed to Biden hours before he takes the oath of office amid promises to address climate change. "Addressing the rampant environmental injustice
from this industry and fulfilling your promises requires regulations and policies to advance zero-emissions solutions powered by zero-emissions power generation," the letter said. Biden's platform featured a section on environmental justice that said he wanted
"to ensure that all Americans have a fair shot at getting ahead. That means rooting out the systemic racism in our laws, policies, institutions, and hearts." The letter pointed to multiple agencies under Biden, from EPA to the Transportation and Labor departments,
that should approve regulations on zero-emission trucks. The groups also want zero-emissions locomotives, cargo-handling equipment, construction equipment and other off-road equipment. "These agencies will be critical in solving the continual health crisis
imposed by the dirty diesel vehicles that are so pervasive in our communities," the letter said. Groups signing the letter included the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, CleanAirNow, GreenLatinos and the Long Beach Alliance for Children
with Asthma.”
[E&E News, 1/20/21]
http://bit.ly/3o0Nbod
Gina McCarthy outlines Biden's first climate, energy actions: “President-elect Joe Biden's
first hours in office will be spent seeking to obliterate much of the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda, restore public land protections and reestablish the United States as a global leader on climate change policy. Biden will sit in the Oval Office
later today and sign a sweeping executive order to rejoin the Paris Agreement and undo President Trump's rollback of greenhouse gas policies, said Gina McCarthy, Biden's national climate adviser. "We know rejoining [Paris] won't be enough, but along with strong
domestic action, which this executive order kicks off, it is going to be an important step for the United States to regain and strengthen its leadership opportunities," McCarthy told reporters late yesterday. The process of rejoining the Paris Agreement will
begin today with a letter to the United Nations requesting U.S. membership. It will take 30 days for the U.S. to formally reenter the nonbinding global agreement to reduce emissions. The administration will also rescind the permit for the controversial Keystone
XL pipeline, McCarthy said. The line transports crude from the western Canadian province of Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas and to other oil facilities in Oklahoma. McCarthy said the pipeline, which was rejected by the Obama administration and
then restored by Trump as one of his first actions, works against the administration's plans to aggressively address climate change and grow union jobs in the clean energy sector.”
[E&E News, 1/20/21]
http://bit.ly/3oXSJky
BLM approves contested forest route of $6B pipeline: “The Bureau of Land Management last
week approved the Mountain Valley pipeline's route through a national forest in Virginia, angering environmentalists who said it was a rushed move to please fossil fuel interests in the Trump administration's final days. In the record of decision, BLM granted
Mountain Valley's request to build and operate roughly 3.5 miles of natural gas pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest. The move came a few days after the Forest Service amended a forest plan for the Jefferson National Forest to accommodate construction
of the $6 billion pipeline. The Forest Service released a final supplemental environmental impact statement on the project's forest route last month. Opponents of the 303-mile pipeline — designed to carry natural gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia
— said BLM's decision last week came at the "expense of the public interest." "Just like the Forest Service, the BLM has hurried to get this approval out in the waning days of the current leadership, living up to its clear goal, to faithfully serve corporate
fossil fuel companies," said David Sligh, conservation director at Wild Virginia, in a statement. Yet Natalie Cox, a spokesperson for Mountain Valley developer EQM Midstream Partners LP, said evaluating the pipeline's path through the Jefferson National Forest
has been a multiyear process. The permit balances the need for "safe, reliable energy infrastructure" with minimizing environmental impacts to the forest, she said. BLM's approval is not the final step in construction of Mountain Valley through the forest.
Francis Piccoli, acting district manager for BLM's Northeastern States District, said the agency's decision last week doesn't authorize "any on the ground activity at this time" in the forest because a written notice to proceed still needs to be issued "to
ensure that the grant holder satisfies all the terms and conditions required before construction or surface disturbing activities occur." The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also still needs to "release the remaining few miles of what was previously designated
as an exclusion zone" in and adjacent to the forest, Cox said.”
[E&E News, 1/20/21]
http://bit.ly/38Xo2GG
Trump admin finalizes ANWR sale, a challenge for Biden: “The Trump administration has cleared
a final hurdle in selling drilling rights to oil speculators in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and set up a snag for the incoming administration, by issuing several of the leases sold at auction earlier this month. Critics of the controversial refuge
oil program had hoped the Trump administration would fail to convey leases before leaving office. President-elect Joe Biden, who has committed to immediately reinstating drilling protection in the refuge, will be sworn in later today. The Bureau of Land Management's
Alaska branch announced yesterday that it had conveyed nine of the 11 leases sold in the refuge in the Jan. 6 sale. "These leases reflect a solid commitment by both the state and industry to pursue responsible oil and gas development on Alaska's North Slope,"
said Chad Padgett, state director for BLM Alaska. He said: "While any further actions on the ground will require additional environmental analysis, this is a hallmark step and a clear indication that Alaska remains important to meeting the nation's energy
needs." Both the energy dominance aims of the outgoing administration and the concerted resistance to its efforts from environmental groups and some Alaska Natives converged in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Republican-led Congress of 2017 opened
the refuge's coastal plain to oil and gas development with a rider tucked into the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, answering a decadeslong campaign from Alaska lawmakers and oil-friendly Republicans. Groups like the Sierra Club responded with a public opposition drive
that preceded commitments from the largest U.S. banks to bar direct funding for drilling in the refuge.”
[E&E News, 1/20/21]
http://bit.ly/3sFuqtX
Federal court strikes down major Trump climate rollback: “In a last-minute slap at President
Donald Trump, a federal appeals court struck down one of his administration’s most momentous climate rollbacks on Tuesday, saying officials acted illegally in issuing a new rule that eased federal regulation of air pollution from power plants. The Trump administration
rule was based on a “mistaken reading of the Clean Air Act,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled, adding that the Environmental Protection Agency "fundamentally has misconceived the law.” The decision is likely to give the incoming
Biden administration a freer hand to regulate emissions from power plants, one of the major sources of climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions. EPA spokeswoman Molly Block called the agency’s handling of the rule change “well-supported." The court decision
"risks injecting more uncertainty at a time when the nation needs regulatory stability,” she said. Environmental groups celebrated the ruling by a three-member panel of the Court of Appeals. “Today’s decision is the perfect Inauguration Day present for America,''
said Ben Levitan, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund, one of the groups that had challenged the Trump rule in court. The ruling “confirms that the Trump administration’s dubious attempt to get rid of common-sense limits on climate pollution from power
plants was illegal,'' Levitan said. "Now we can turn to the critically important work of protecting Americans from climate change and creating new clean energy jobs.” A coalition of environmental groups, some state governments and others had challenged the
Trump administration’s so-called Affordable Clean Energy, or ACE, rule for the power sector. The rule, which was made final in 2019, replaced the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration's signature program to address climate change.”
[AP, 1/20/21]
http://bit.ly/3iwq9Ey
FERC deals setbacks to gas projects, grid orders: “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
delivered blows yesterday to a number of natural gas projects that had been Trump administration priorities, including the controversial Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas export facility off the Oregon coast. During a monthly meeting, FERC commissioners unanimously
rejected a bid to overturn Oregon officials' denial of a key permit to developers of the $10 billion LNG export terminal, marking a significant victory for the project's opponents. Outgoing Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette tried to streamline authorization
for the Coos Bay, Ore., project last summer. And in an unexpected setback to Republican FERC Chairman James Danly's final agenda as chairman, Republican Commissioner Neil Chatterjee joined his Democratic colleagues in rejecting an array of natural gas items
related to the Mountain Valley and Sabal Trail Transmission pipelines, LNG company New Fortress Energy Inc., and Enbridge Inc.'s Weymouth compressor station in Massachusetts. Many of the denials applied to draft orders, meaning the commission could take further
action on the proposals under the Biden administration. FERC also quashed a bid to begin voluntary compliance with President Trump's overhaul of the bedrock National Environmental Policy Act. Newly seated Republican Commissioner Mark Christie joined Chatterjee,
along with Democratic Commissioners Richard Glick and Allison Clements, in rejecting the proposal, citing its timing. The commission likewise declined to act on a highly anticipated electric transmission incentives proposal.”
[E&E News, 1/20/21]
http://bit.ly/392ex9b
Biden to use first 100 days to jump-start climate change agenda: “U.S. President-elect Joe
Biden is expected to move quickly to execute his energy and climate change agenda during his first 100 days in office, both through executive action and the launch or rollback of agency rulemakings. The incoming president will also work closely with the Democrat-controlled
U.S. Congress on climate policy as lawmakers draft further legislation to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Biden has pledged to set the U.S. on the path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with an interim target of decarbonizing the U.S. power
sector by 2035. He is expected to use his first 100 days to start the nation down that road. Trevor Higgins, senior fellow on the climate team of the Center for American Progress, said Biden needs to quickly set in motion all of the transitions required to
achieve his climate goals, which pose an "extraordinary challenge." Higgins noted Biden has pledged to use "all of the levers in the federal government to accelerate the transitions that are already in motion." That said, "I don't think it's like he's going
to come in and snap his fingers and suddenly something is fixed. I think what we're doing is now starting to repair the damage that the Trump administration did to our bedrock environmental laws and get back to the work of stabilizing the climate." In addition,
Biden can address climate change at the same time as some other big priorities he has coming into office, said Sara Chieffo, vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. "You really cannot set aside tackling climate change from
their economic agenda," Chieffo said. Climate change "is deeply interwoven and at the heart of how we're going to build back better from this pandemic and the national reckoning we're having about injustice and what drives that and how much systemic racism
has driven the problems that we're seeing.’”
[S&P Global, 1/20/21]
http://bit.ly/3iyvv2e
Judge Wrestles With Oakland A’s Ballpark Environmental Review Fast-Track: “A coalition of
trade groups looking to stall construction of a new Oakland A’s ballpark near the Port of Oakland argued in virtual court on Thursday that Governor Gavin Newsom doesn’t have the authority to fast-track the project. “Once the deadline came and went, the governor
lost the authority to certify this project — period,” said attorney Ron Van Buskirk, who represents groups including the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, California Trucking Association and Schnitzer Steel Industries. They claim the Oakland A’s are
trying to cut corners on the environmental review of a project that will increase traffic and greenhouse gas emissions in the area and importantly, disrupt port activities at the nearby Howard Terminal. In September 2018, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 734 into
law, which streamlined the ballpark’s environmental review process under the California Environmental Quality Act. The bill written by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, marks the ballpark as eligible to be fast-tracked under Assembly Bill 900, a law signed
by former Governor Jerry Brown in 2011 that expedites large job-creating projects. In a petition filed in March 2020, the groups say Newsom failed to certify the ballpark for fast-track environmental review treatment by Dec. 31, 2019. Because of this, the
groups want a full review under the CEQA, rather than the truncated one authorized by Newsom and the Legislature. Van Buskirk told Alameda County Superior Court Judge Noël Wise that the Legislature clearly knew about the Jan. 1, 2020 cutoff date in AB 900
when it incorporated its certification guidelines into AB 734. The Legislature has extended the sunset of AB 900 multiple times over the years, but failed to do again — causing AB 900 to expire on Jan. 1, 2021. The sunset notwithstanding, the legal effect
of AB 900 has not changed, he said. “AB 734 incorporated the [AB 900] guidelines and the guidelines at that time had the governor certification deadline. That deadline came and went without the project being certified. The legal effect of that is complete
at that time.’”
[Courthouse News, 1/20/21]
http://bit.ly/3p6J8Ig
Justin McCarthy
He/Him/His
Director, NEPA Campaign
The Partnership Project
C: 540-312-3797
E: jmccarthy@partnershipproject.org
The Partnership Project, a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit, is a collaborative effort of over 20 of the country’s most influential advocacy organizations, including Sierra Club, Earthjustice, League of Conservation Voters, and Natural
Resources Defense Council.