Category: CN_BUSINESSES_TA Executive_Cabinet_CN Politics_CN

Republican officials and corporate lobby groups are teeing up a multi-pronged legal assault on the Biden administration’s effort to help investors hold public corporations accountable for their carbon emissions and other climate change risks.

President Biden promised to address the climate crisis by cutting climate pollution in half by 2030 and to deliver strong public health protections for all communities, including those historically overburdened by pollution.

The Department of Energy, Interior Department and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are grappling with how to implement the landmark climate law and carry out President Joe Biden’s priorities for shifting the country towards low-carbon energy.
Biden’s signing of the Inflation Reduction Act — hatched in a deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin — set off a sprint for agencies to advance new programs, directives and rulemakings. That ranges from assisting the Internal Revenue Service in advancing clean energy tax credits to carrying out an overhaul of public land policies that advance wind, solar and new oil and gas.

The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday published an industrial decarbonization road map, laying out a comprehensive strategy to reduce emissions associated with five sectors: chemical manufacturing, petroleum refining, iron and steel, cement production, and the food and beverage industry.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen praised Biden administration’s economic policies Thursday during a speech at a Ford Motor Company electric vehicle plant in Michigan.

The Department of Energy just took a first step toward launching new lithium-ion battery recycling programs in the US. It issued a Request for Information (RFI) yesterday to ask for public input on how to spend $335 million in federal investments for battery recycling that was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed last year.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued notices to 15 states for failure to submit plans for air pollution reduction, four months after a lawsuit on the matter from a coalition of environmental groups.
In the lawsuit, originally filed in April, four organizations charged that the EPA had neglected to enforce the Clean Air Act’s Regional Haze rule by failing to notify states that had missed the deadline to submit an air pollution reduction plan. Plaintiffs included the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Parks Conservation Association.

The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced a significant expansion to its state energy program and is now accepting applications for $425 million in formula funding for the development of renewable resources, efficiency improvements, installation of electric vehicle chargers and other clean energy projects.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced more than $540 million in awards for university- and National Laboratory-led research into clean energy technologies and low-carbon manufacturing. Most greenhouse-gas emissions come from the production and use of energy, so building strong scientific foundations for reducing emissions across the energy lifecycle is crucial to meeting President Biden’s goal of creating a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

All carrots, no sticks. That is the story of the Inflation Reduction Act. Since the law was unveiled last month, savvy commentators have noted that its policies consist almost entirely of “carrots,” incentives meant to encourage companies to decarbonize, with very few “sticks,” policies meant to punish them for using fossil fuels or emitting carbon. (Just so we’re clear: This analogy is meant to invoke a stubborn donkey that, Looney Tunes–style, is craning to reach a carrot hanging in front of its face while its driver whacks its behind with a stick.)