House-approved climate bill language allowing for a border adjustment in 2020 to offset the uncompensated costs of carbon leakage to other nations gives a future administration flexibility to avoid imposing the requirement, despite objections by the Obama administration that the provisions may be an unnecessary tariff, sources say.
The Obama administration has indicated to environmental activists that the president likely will agree to a goal of limiting global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels during a pair of upcoming international meetings on climate change, sources say, although activists say that commitment alone will not be enough to ensure a successful outcome in international climate treaty negotiations at the end of the year.
The upcoming U.S.-Russia summit appears likely to provide a venue for bolstering cooperation between the two countries on global warming, a step that some advocates say could be a crucial step toward winning support for a post-2012 climate deal.
The House's 219-212 vote on climate legislation June 26 may offer an indication of states whose Democratic senators are likely to face continued political pressure to oppose companion legislation when the Senate takes up the issue later this summer, while also pointing to regions where on-the-fence senators eventually may support efforts to address global warming.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is rejecting for now a call by a group of states to adopt a new method for assessing the costs and benefits of climate change policies but is leaving the door open to such an approach once policymakers adopt a mandate to regulate greenhouse gases (GHG).
Congressional Republicans are claiming an EPA economist has undermined the scientific consensus that human activity is a significant driver of global warming, arguing the development justifies an investigation into whether… more
The version of the energy and climate bill sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey (D-MA) passed by the House on June 26 has been released to the public. The 1,428-page legislation incorporates new language aimed at protecting trade-exposed industries, barring over-the-counter carbon allowance derivatives trading and granting the Agriculture Department responsibility over farm-sector offsets.
A report trumpeted by opponents of greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations as undercutting the scientific consensus on climate change has been released by EPA, following calls for an investigation from congressional Republicans over claims the agency was suppressing the report—prepared by an economist, not a climate scientist—because it undermines the proposed finding that GHGs endanger public health. A note from the author accompanying the paper notes that, because of time constraints imposed by EPA, it was “impossible to observe normal scholarly standards or even to carefully proofread the comments. As a result there are undoubtedly numerous unresolved inconsistencies and other problems that would normally have been resolved with more normal deadlines.”
California Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) June 24 intervened in a lawsuit challenging a city’s General Plan update, citing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impacts that will result because the city is allegedly violating state housing laws. (more)
The country’s largest labor federation has endorsed the climate bill expected to come up for a vote this week, but the AFL-CIO says the bill should not reach the president’s desk until the Energy Information Administration fully analyzes its impacts. In a June 25 letter, AFL-CIO’s director of government affairs, William Samuel, urges lawmakers to vote for the bill, citing its potential to create jobs and ease the burdens imposed by a cap-and-trade program on individual sectors of the economy. However, Samuel also says labor unions will work to improve the legislation, particularly its provisions on competitiveness.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) has dismissed a 2006 lawsuit the state brought against the world’s major auto companies that alleged they should compensate the state more than a billion dollars for environmental and public health damages caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted over the past several decades from vehicles. The state lost a lower federal court ruling and was appealing the ruling in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (more).
more documents . . .EPA is extending until September the public comment period on its controversial renewable fuel standard (RFS) proposal, a move that could give Congress more time to push legislation blocking EPA from assessing in the… more
State legislators in Ohio this week adopted a non-binding resolution urging Congress not to implement a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gas emissions, arguing it would be too costly for businesses and consumers in… more
Energy-intensive industries concerned about “leakage” of U.S. jobs and economic activity to non-carbon controlled economies are touting a recent World Trade Organization (WTO) report that seems to leave open the possibility of… more
Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is calling in the big guns for a hearing scheduled after the July 4 recess on the available legislative options for addressing climate change.… more
Environmental groups and renewable energy advocates were outnumbered more than three to one by industry groups and power companies in their push to lobby lawmakers on the cap-and-trade legislation that passed the House last… more