Who Will Fight the Repeal of the Clean Power Plan?

EPA Administrator Pruitt said he will roll back Clean Power Plan and do away with federal wind and solar tax credits.

As word spread that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt will officially begin the process of repealing the Clean Power Plan, others vowed to fight back.

The New York Times reported that Scott Pruitt told attendees at an event in Kentucky that he will sign a proposed rule to “roll back the Clean Power Plan.”

EPA's Flawed Ruling Gives Control of Biofuel Market to Oil Industry

In arguing that U.S. ethanol producers are upset by the recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lower the number of gallons of biofuels refiners are required to use in 2016, William O’Keefe and Jane Van Ryan completely miss the point in their Dec. 14 blog post “Ethanol producers and politics, looking for trouble.” 

The industry’s objection to the EPA’s final rule has little to do with the numbers. Rather, U.S. ethanol producers have objected to the methodology the EPA used in straying away from the statutorily imposed blending requirements. 

EPA Rule Recognizes Biogas' Leading Role in the Advanced Biofuel Industry, says ABC

American Biogas Council says rule falls short of recognizing biogas industry's full potential.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its long anticipated final rule for the renewable volume obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for the years 2014-2016 on Dec. 1. According to the American Biogas Council (ABC)., Washington, the action recognizes the leading role among all advanced biofuel producers, including cellulosic ethanol, that biogas has been playing and will continue to play for generating renewable fuel for U.S. vehicles. This recognition is cause for celebration and should result in new biogas projects, but to really accelerate industry growth the biogas industry needs to see much higher volumes in future years that will adequately recognize the full strength of the U.S. biogas industry.

Brighter Horizon for Biofuels

The biofuel industry breathed a big sigh of relief last month when the EPA declined several governors’ petitions to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard. Then, after a herculean group effort, the industry and other interests stood and cheered as the Senate voted last week to clear the path for the Department of Defense to take a leadership role in opening markets for new advanced biofuels.

Additional regulatory and Congressional actions may give the industry even further cause for celebration in the next few weeks and months. After meeting a number of challenges, the biofuels industry’s cohesive, unified efforts are paying off. The industry needs to continue to support efforts, such as Fuels America, in order to fend off biofuels opponents and detractors.

Proposed bill relieves retailers of E15 liability

The Domestic Fuels Act of 2012, a bipartisan bill introduced March 30 in both houses of Congress, includes a provision that would make it illegal for a retailer to be held responsible for damages that could occur as a result of misfueling by consumers, so long as the retailer has complied with the U.S. EPA’s misfueling regulations. The proposed legislation would protect retailers against potential liability should consumers use E15 in small engines, vehicles produced earlier than model year 2001, or in any other nonapproved engine and would also prevent retailers from being held liable if the consumer’s use of a fuel voids the vehicle/small engine warranty.

EPA finalizes 2012 renewable fuel standards

Under the Clean Air Act Section 211(o), as amended by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to set the annual standards under the Renewable Fuel Standard program (RFS) based on gasoline and diesel projections from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). EPA is also required to set the cellulosic biofuel standard each year based on the volume projected to be available during the following year, using EIA projections and assessments of production capability from industry. This regulatory action establishes these annual standards for cellulosic, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuels that apply to all gasoline and diesel produced or imported in year 2012.

World: 10 reasons renewable energy may beat the projections

Five percent? That's the EIA's projected global increase in renewable energy generation by the year 2035. You'd think that nearly 30 years of technological, business and environmental inroads would make a bigger dent in the world's future energy mix.

Aren’t we supposed to be living the solar dream by then? Won’t we be driving to the beach in algae-powered vehicles? Won’t we all revel in our views of majestic wind turbines? The utopian vision of our energy future may not exist in our lifetimes, but it has to have a better outlook than the one released this week.

U.S. and Chinese energy policy: Chinese carbon caps

While U.S. Republican presidential candidates are vying for who will dismantle the EPA fastest upon winning the election and dismissing air pollution as liberal propaganda, China is considering a cap on greenhouse gases.

China has long surpassed the United States in funding for green technology, has recently instituted a solar feed-in tariff, and, in a further display of reasonableness, is now, at least, discussing a "campaign to limit the absolute amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by certain industries in certain regions," according to a senior climate official, as reported in the China Daily.

USA: Examining biofuels policy

By 2050, the global population will hit between 7.5 billion and 10.5 billion. Energy demands will soar, and traditional energy supplies, such as petroleum, will struggle to meet the demands. Biofuels will be essential “for future fuel solutions that are affordable, available, and clean,” says Arthur Reijnhart, general manager of alternative energies and fuels development strategy at Shell.

Belief in the ability of biofuels to solve our transportation energy needs goes as far back as 1925 when automobile pioneer Henry Ford said in an interview with Christian Science Monitor: “The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumac out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust—almost anything.”

BCAP applications for Camila growers

By: Mackinnon Lawrence, Cleantech Law Partners

On the heals of EPA lowering its RFS2 targets for cellulosic ethanol in 2012, Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) funding is getting a fresh roll-out to incentivise the production of non-food biomass (see What is Biomass?).

US Supreme Court grants authority once again to the EPA, despite lobbyist efforts

By Donna Artusy; Cleantech Law Partners

The Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. US EPA 549 U.S. 497 (2007) is once again stirring up friction between utilities companies and Congress. The 2007 decision reaffirmed the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, under the power of the Clean Air Act passed in 1963.

Even in the recent June 20, 2011 decision by the Supreme Court in American Electric Power v. Connecticut (docket no. 10-174) the Justices dismissed the suit that contested the right for the EPA to determine the regulations regarding climate change and emissions. Thus, the EPA will continue to hold jurisdiction, so to speak, in regards to what state utilities companies are permitted to do.

Hyrdofracking comes at a cost

The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of new wells and drilling rigs, as the country scrambles to tap into this century’s gold rush — for natural gas.

The gas has always been there, of course, trapped deep underground in countless tiny bubbles, like frozen spills of seltzer water between thin layers of shale rock. But drilling companies have only in recent years developed techniques to unlock the enormous reserves, thought to be enough to supply the country with gas for heating buildings, generating electricity and powering vehicles for up to a hundred years.

Arizona withdraws support for EPA greenhouse gas endangerment findings

The state of Arizona, which had supported the Obama administration's decision that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health and the environment, has dropped out of the massive court battle over U.S. EPA's new climate regulations, court records show.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne (R) asked to withdraw the state from the litigation in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia. The court approved the request this morning.

EPA regulations for biomass on hold

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced January 12, 2011 that it plans a three-year delay in regulating wood-fired power plants and other “biomass” incinerators under Clean Air Act provisions reducing greenhouse gases pending future consideration of the science and a subsequent rulemaking. The EPA is granting the three-year exemption despite the existing and very plain science that burning of trees and other wood products increases global warming pollution.

EPA's efforts to regulate CO2 challenged in court

The Obama administration's move to curb greenhouse gases using the Environmental Protection Agency has drawn legal challenges from more than 90 companies and trade associations, giving the courts another opening to shape U.S. climate policy in the absence of legislative action.

New EPA tailoring rule offers no breaks for biomass power

With a new tailoring rule, EPA is poised to begin formally regulating greenhouse gases from large sources. With no exemption, biomass industry sees chilling message in the new rule.