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The $369 billion local weather invoice signed into regulation by President Joe Biden final week will tax methane emissions, a probably important step in assembly worldwide local weather targets.
However the coverage comes with a catch: roughly $1.5 billion in grants and loans to grease and fuel firms to assist them measure and handle these emissions.
It seems that the one politically viable solution to punish fossil gasoline firms for his or her emissions was to dish out a brand new subsidy for the business.
Democrats had little alternative. The coverage was born out of a number of months of intense talks between Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a vocal supporter of the methane payment, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a fossil gasoline business supporter and the Senate’s most necessary swing vote.
Even in its diluted kind, the coverage may assist clear up emissions at an important time. Methane concentrations within the environment are rising quickly, sparking fears amongst scientists that it may stop the world from assembly its local weather targets.
“Those that wish to criticize the place we ended up are actually free to do this,” Carper mentioned in an interview. “On the finish of the day, defeat was not an possibility. We needed to discover our solution to sure, we needed to discover a solution to compromise.”
‘A long time of dawdling’
Methane is a extremely potent greenhouse fuel emitted in quite a lot of agricultural and industrial actions, most prominently by the oil and fuel business.
Below the brand new regulation, many services that emit methane over a sure threshold stage will probably be topic to fines starting in 2024. A brand new methane regulation from EPA can also be set to be issued as quickly as this yr.
Nonetheless, it is a bitter tablet for progressive Democrats who pledged in the course of the 2020 marketing campaign to cast off subsidies and particular remedies for oil, fuel and coal firms.
Some pure fuel services might also find yourself being exempted from the payment, elevating questions on its potential affect on emissions.
“The methane payment has clearly over time been watered down from unique intent,” mentioned Barry Rabe, a College of Michigan professor who tracks vitality and local weather coverage. “There are some actual gaps in it when it comes to the variety of producing companies which can be exempt.”
However in the end, Rabe mentioned, the coverage sends a powerful sign each at dwelling and overseas after nations, together with america, pledged to scale back methane emissions throughout world local weather talks final yr.
“It additional positions the U.S., after a long time of dawdling on methane, to start to make some critical progress,” Rabe mentioned.
In the present day in POLITICO Power’s podcast: POLITICO’s Zack Colman explains why environmental justice activists are sad with the brand new local weather regulation.
It is Monday — thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Energy Change. I am your host, Nick Sobczyk. Arianna Skibell will probably be again quickly. Energy Change is delivered to you by the journalists behind E&E Information and POLITICO Power. Ship your suggestions, feedback, inquiries to [email protected].
The drought-stricken Dallas-Fort Value area was struck by huge floods in the present day, with some areas seeing almost 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour span.
It is as a lot rain as Dallas-Fort Value residents may anticipate to see over a complete summer time, dumped onto elements of the area in a single day.
The Dallas deluge is a collision of local weather impacts.
The area, together with a lot of the American West, had been in a interval of remarkable drought. Scientists say local weather change is growing “climate whiplash,” with extra frequent swings between excessive drought and excessive precipitation.
Grid hassle
Utilities are having hassle getting their fingers on essential grid gear, as america enters peak hurricane season, writes Peter Behr.
The scarcity of latest energy transformers means potential delays to post-storm restoration. It may additionally affect new clear vitality deployment. Learn the story right here.
SCOTUS fallout
The Supreme Court docket’s June choice to restrict EPA’s energy plant greenhouse fuel laws may hit low-income and minority communities the toughest, write Lesley Clark and Jean Chemnick.
“If EPA is constrained from taking motion, that delay and exacerbation of the local weather disaster can have the best impact on environmental justice communities, on fenceline communities,” mentioned Amy Laura Cahn, authorized director of Taproot Earth. Learn that story right here.
Nuclear reactions
French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to ship a crew from the Worldwide Atomic Power Company to Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant in Ukraine, writes Luanna Muniz.
The protection watchdog has known as the state of affairs at Europe’s largest nuclear facility “very alarming.” It is beneath management of Russian troops, and shelling this month triggered one reactor to close down for security causes. Learn extra right here.
Local weather impacts: Injury from Hurricane Harvey stays 5 years after it introduced document rainfall to Houston.
Energy loans: Democrats’ new local weather regulation consists of $350 billion in vitality and automotive mortgage packages, a serious enhance for rising clear vitality applied sciences.
The science, coverage and politics driving the vitality transition can really feel miles away. However we’re all affected on a person and communal stage — from hotter days and better fuel costs to dwelling insurance coverage charges and meals provide.
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One other firm is backing out of an oil and fuel lease within the Arctic Nationwide Wildlife Refuge, the second in two months, leaving the state of Alaska as the only real remaining lease holder within the controversial space.
Texas’ plan to winterize its pure fuel services after blackouts final yr is drawing criticism from all sides.
The nation’s greenhouse fuel emissions rose 2.5 {c83b2c02332610f6c701e93e059ab5548f0d783545dff7079df6d2bfbe7c7877} within the first six months of this yr, as individuals received again on the roads and pure fuel demand stayed sturdy within the energy sector.
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