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Obama Carbon Rules to Face Lawsuits, Congressional Tests

WASHINGTON—What could be a yearslong legal and political battle over the Obama administration’s main climate-change initiative formally kicked off Friday, with two dozen states filing a lawsuit against regulations aimed at cutting U.S. carbon emissions. The states sued in a federal court here to challenge the rules, which seek to reduce carbon output from hundreds of power plants across the nation. Congressional Republicans also said Friday they would introduce measures in the coming week seeking to block the rules. The moves will put pressure on the administration from the two other branches of government and, if successful on either front, could cast uncertainty over the rules into the next presidential administration. The legal challengers are expected to contest the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority on a range of grounds, some of them little explored by the courts. Industry associations and companies, including coal producer Murray Energy, also began filing separate […]

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With Market on Their Side, Electric Utilities Skip Fight Against Carbon Rule

Lynn Good, Duke’s chief executive, is undecided about the EPA’s carbon-dioxide emissions plan. U.S. coal companies and at least 16 state governments are working on challenges to the Obama administration’s new rule limiting carbon emissions from power plants. Most electric utilities have a different strategy: They are embracing it. The main reason, executives and experts say, is that economic forces are pushing the power industry inexorably toward a lower-carbon future. “Everybody is moving in this direction anyway,” said Dominion Chief Executive Tom Farrell. The new regulations just add certainty to companies’ plans to move away from relying on coal to generate electricity, turning instead toward cheap natural gas as well as renewable energy, which is available at increasingly lower cost. “Price is a larger force in electricity markets today than what Washington is doing with regulations,” said Todd Carter, president of Panda Power Funds, a private-equity investor and generating-plant […]

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Volkswagen Withdraws Request to Certify 2016 Diesel Models

Volkswagen’s Audi brand vehicles parked in Brussels last month. Volkswagen AG VLKAY 8.93 % conceded it won’t be able sell diesel-powered vehicles in the U.S. for a prolonged period, withdrawing a request for regulators to certify new models in the wake of an emissions-cheating scandal. Volkswagen’s 2016 model-year diesel-powered vehicles include emissions-control software that requires regulatory approval in the U.S., according to prepared remarks by the auto maker’s U.S. chief executive to be delivered on Thursday at a congressional hearing. The testimony doesn’t make clear whether the software can defeat emissions tests as software on older diesel-powered vehicles does. In his prepared statement, Michael Horn, head of Volkswagen Group of America, offered a “sincere apology” to U.S. lawmakers for the German auto maker’s yearslong deception. “These events are deeply troubling. I did not think that something like this was possible at the Volkswagen Group,” he said in his testimony […]

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EPA Sets Stricter Air-Pollution Standard for Ozone

WASHINGTON—The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced a sweeping federal air-pollution limit on ground-level ozone, one of several environmental regulations fueling a clash between the Obama administration and the business community. The EPA is setting a final standard of 70 parts per billion of ozone in the air, down from the current level of 75 parts per billion, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Thursday. The ozone limit is prompting criticism both from environmental groups that say it isn’t strong enough and business executives who didn’t want the EPA to change the standard at all. Some company and state officials have said they could support a standard of 70 but nothing lower, indicating the EPA is seeking to find some middle ground on the hotly divisive issue. “We know that this regulation could have been worse, but it still feels like a punch in the gut,” said Tom Riordan, CEO […]

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The Connection Between Cleaner Air and Longer Lives

Continue reading the main story Slide Show Slide Show|12 Photos A Look Back at the Smog A Look Back at the Smog CreditNeal Boenzi/The New York Times Back in 1970, Los Angeles was known as the smog capital of the world — a notorious example of industrialization largely unfettered by regard for health or the environment. Heavy pollution drove up respiratory and heart problems and shortened lives. But 1970 was also the year the environmental movement held the first Earth Day and when, 45 years ago this month, Congress passed a powerful update of the Clean Air Act . (Soon after, it was signed by President Richard Nixon , and it was followed by the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the Clean Water Act, making him one of the most important, though underappreciated, environmentalists in American history.) Since that time, the Clean Air Act has […]

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Federal Court Denies States’ Request to Temporarily Block EPA Carbon Rules

WASHINGTON—A federal court denied a request by more than a dozen states on Wednesday to temporarily block the Obama administration’s carbon regulations while they mount a full legal challenge to the rules. The decision is an early victory for the Environmental Protection Agency, which completed the rules last month calling for carbon emissions from power plants to be cut 32% by 2030 from 2005 levels . The regulations are the cornerstone of President Barack Obama ’s climate plan, and Wednesday’s ruling is an early legal salvo in what is expected to be a yearslong court battle over Mr. Obama’s climate agenda. Last month, 15 states asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to issue an emergency stay blocking the rules , noting that they would be required “to spend significant and irrevocable sovereign resources now” to be in a position to meet the initial deadline […]

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Heitkamp Reacts to Methane Ruling

Global Warming Debate Rages North Dakota senator, Heidi Heitkamp, pushes back against the latest federal mandate to reduce methane emissions. President Obama revealed a plan last month that would require oil and gas companies to cut methane pollution from drilling sites, distribution systems and in other areas of operation. This ruling is part of the President’s broad and aggressive plan to fight climate change, and many believe it would literally transform the energy industry. The EPA said the proposed standards will reduce 340,000 to 400,000 short tons of methane in 2025, the equivalent of reducing 7.7 to 9 million metric tons of CO2. The agency estimates the rule will yield net climate benefits of $120-150 million in 2025. Senator Henkamp is proposing bipartisan, “commonsense solutions” to reduce methane emissions including speeding up the permit approval process for gas-gathering lines and pipeline projects to reduce flaring. Heitkamp commented, “Energy production […]

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Earth’s trees number ‘three trillion’

Image copyright David Zeleny The new estimate includes "ground truth" density data from 400,000 forest plots There are just over three trillion trees on Earth, according to a new assessment. The figure is eight times as big as the previous best estimate, which counted perhaps 400 billion at most. It has been produced by Thomas Crowther from Yale University, and colleagues, who combined a mass of ground survey data with satellite pictures. The team tells the journal Nature that the new total represents upwards of 420 trees for every person on the planet. The more refined number will now form a baseline for a wide range of research applications – everything from studies that consider animal and plant habitats for biodiversity reasons, to new models of the climate, because it is trees of course that play an important role in removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. […]

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EPA to Propose Rules Cutting Methane Emissions From Oil and Gas Drilling

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday will propose the first-ever federal regulations to cut methane emissions from the nation’s oil and natural-gas industry, according to people familiar with the move, which is part of President Barack Obama’s climate agenda. The EPA is expected to propose regulations aimed at cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40% to 45% over the next decade from 2012…

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Study Links Polluted Air in China to 1.6 Million Deaths a Year

Photo Waiting on a roadside this month for a highway from Beijing to Hebei Province to reopen after it was closed because of low visibility on a day of heavy smog. Credit Damir Sagolj/Reuters BEIJING — Outdoor air pollution contributes to the deaths of an estimated 1.6 million people in China every year, or about 4,400 people a day, according to a newly released scientific paper . The paper maps the geographic sources of China ’s toxic air and concludes that much of the smog that routinely shrouds Beijing comes from emissions in a distant industrial zone, a finding that may complicate the government’s efforts to clean up the capital city’s air in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The authors are members of Berkeley Earth , a research organization based in Berkeley, Calif., that uses statistical techniques to analyze environmental issues. The paper has been accepted for publication […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple