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Top Story
Exxon’s own models predicted global warming. It ignored them.
It’s been seven years since journalists first revealed Exxon Mobil Corp.’s decadeslong efforts to undermine the scientific certainty around climate change, despite knowing how serious a problem it was. Now, a new analysis demonstrates exactly how much the company knew — and how its public disinformation campaigns sabotaged the warnings of its own scientists. [ read more … ]
Wind Energy
What offshore wind power could mean for California (when turbines eventually start spinning)
The Pacific Ocean contains a potential windfall of clean, renewable energy. Last month, the federal government took a major step to harness that power. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management auctioned off five lease areascovering more than 373,000 acres in Central and Northern California. The Northern California area includes two parcels off Eureka in Humboldt County and three in the waters west of Morro Bay in San Luis Obispo County. Both areas are about 20 miles offshore. The five winning companies — one American and four European — bid more than $757 million in total for the rights to build wind farms in the Pacific parcels. [ read more … ]
Interior proposes 5-year schedule for offshore wind sales
The Biden administration plans to mandate a five-year schedule for offshore wind auctions, mirroring the pace of offshore oil sale planning currently called for in federal law. The schedule, a longtime ask of the budding wind industry, is one of several updates the Interior Department recommended Thursday in a proposed rulethat would revise the decade-old standards that govern renewable energy off the nation’s coasts. [ read more … ]
States
Minnesota DFLers push bills for carbon-free electricity by 2040
DFL lawmakers introduced bills in the Minnesota Senate and House last week that would require completely carbon-free electricity by 2040, a top goal for the party in fighting climate change and a key policy in Gov. Tim Walz’ Climate Action Framework. The bills were introduced just as the session opened, underscoring the urgency felt by DFLers to pass them this year.
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EPA
Shoulder to the wheel’: EPA girds for 2023
EPA has a consequential year ahead as it advances far-reaching regulations and defends gains made during the Biden administration that now face empowered Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Since coming to office, President Joe Biden has secured historic funding for the agency through his signature legislation, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. In 2023, EPA will manage billions of dollars under those measures while pushing forward on significant rules on climate change and water protection.
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EPA eyes cumulative pollution to boost environmental justice
EPA on Wednesday released a new playbook for confronting the onslaught of pollutants in low-income and minority communities across the country. The “cumulative impacts addendum” builds on a policy from May that helps dictate how the federal government considers pollution and climate change in communities of color when enforcing environmental statutes. [ read more … ]
Congress
Bipartisan support for China oil ban could be harbinger
A Republican-led bill restricting oil reserve sales to China gained wide support from Democrats on Thursday, signaling a bipartisan energy security agenda that House Republicans could take advantage of going forward. The chamber voted 331-97 for H.R. 22, from Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), to prohibit the sale of any oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China or Chinese-influenced subsidiaries [ read more … ]
House OKs bill to keep China from buying U.S. oil reserves
The House approved its first energy bill of the new Congress on Thursday morning with significant bipartisan support. The chamber voted 331-97 for H.R. 22, from Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), to prevent the sale of Strategic Petroleum Reserve fuel to China. President Joe Biden last year made several SPR releases to lower gasoline prices, and Republicans say some of the crude would end up in Chinese hands. [ read more … ]
Natural Gas
4 things to know about the gas stove frenzy
Conservatives have discovered a new punching bag: the idea of a federal ban on gas stoves. But what is the Biden administration really planning? And how would any rules on gas stoves affect emissions and intersect with existing local policy? The notion of a federal ban began with comments by one of the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s five members, Richard Trumka Jr., who said the agency should develop new regulations on gas stove emissions and should not rule out an end to sales of the product. [ read more … ]
EVs
Tesla Cuts Prices Sharply as It Moves to Bolster Demand
Tesla has cut prices on most of its electric cars in the United States and Europe by as much as 20 percent in a bid to spur slackening demand. The automaker faces increasingly stiff competition in the global market for electric vehicles. It also must contend with rising interest rates in the United States, which have increased the cost of financing vehicle purchases. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.