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Commentary
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the front-runner for Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee if Republicans take the House in the mid-term elections, penned an editorial attributing the country's economic problems to "the administration's restrictive regulatory stranglehold on industry." Rep. Upton proposes that any significant new regulations should require Congressional approval . . . EPA and NHTSA are working on joint GHG emissions and fuel economy regulations for heavy-duty trucks . . . The European Union Council of Ministers issued a pre-Cancún statement saying that it would prefer a new treaty that builds on the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accord, but would live with a second commitment period under the Protocol. In contrast, a top official for Japan said his government would not support any treaty that fails to include limits for all major emitters . . . The US Department of Agriculture announced new subsidies for biomass energy crops and biofuels infrastructure . . . A District Court judge has directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its 2008 decision listing the polar bear as "threatened" instead of "endangered." Environmental NGOs are seeking the latter designation, which, in their view, would empower the USFWS to take broader measures to address climate change . . . Still waiting for EPA BACT guidance, which is under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget. It is unclear whether it will appear before or after the mid-term elections.
Executive Branch
- EPA and NHTSA to Release Proposed Heavy Duty Truck GHG Standards This Week. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would release its first set of greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for heavy duty trucks the week of October 25. Like EPA's passenger vehicle standards finalized earlier this year, the heavy-duty truck standards are being jointly proposed alongside fuel economy standards being developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The regulations are expected to be finalized in June 2011, and are reported to apply to vehicles produced beginning in 2014.
- USDA Implements New Biomass Subsidies, Support for Biofuel Infrastructure. Implementing a provision of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (also known as the "Farm Bill"), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a final rule under which the agency's Biomass Crop Assistance Program will provide subsidies for specific crops that can be converted to biofuels. The subsidies will cover 75% of initial costs for establishing new energy crops, and will also provide ongoing support for up to five years for non-woody perennial crops and fifteen years for woody perennial crops. In addition, USDA announced a separate program under which the Department will provide matching payments for investments in retail pumps and storage equipment for blended gasoline incorporating biofuels; the USDA expects the program to support the installation of 10,000 pumps over the next five years. Finally, the USDA also announced a five-year partnership agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration to identify biomass feedstocks for aviation fuel and evaluate their availability.
Congress
- Upton Decries EPA Regs in Editorial. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), a frontrunner to become Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee if the Republicans assume control of the House in November, denounces the "seemingly endless job-killing red tape coming from the administration" in an editorial published in The Washington Times. Rep. Upton attributes the worsening economy to "the administration's restrictive regulatory stranglehold on industry" and describes incipient EPA regulations—including those related to coal ash, industrial and commercial boilers, and ozone—as "job-killing" and a "regulatory train wreck." The editorial concludes that "no significant regulation should take effect until Congress has voted to approve it and the president has had an opportunity to approve or veto congressional action." Rep. Upton was opposed to the House-passed cap-and-trade bill but previously has said that climate change should be addressed. The editorial is available at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/18/declaring-war-on-the-regulatory-state/. In other news relating to Upton's bid to become Chairman of the panel with the lion's share of House energy and environmental jurisdiction, it was reported that Republican House leadership will assert control over at least one top staff appointment for Upton. A short list of "preapproved" staffers was floated in Hill publications this week. Several of those names included staff who served as Committee or personal staff under former Energy and Commerce Chairman, now Ranking Member, Joe Barton (R-TX).
Judicial
- Judge Remands Listing of Polar Bear to FWS. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia announced that he would remand the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) 2008 decision to list the polar bear as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to the agency for further clarification as to why the species merits that designation. Environmental organizations challenging the listing, including the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, have argued that the polar bear should be classified as an endangered species due to the impact of climate change on the polar bear's habitat. By listing the polar bear as threatened rather than endangered, FWS limited the agency's authority to regulate GHG emissions taking place outside of the polar bear's range. If environmental petitioners prevail in the suit, the government would become legally obligated under the ESA to protect polar bear habitat, possibly by taking measures to address climate change more broadly.
Industry and NGOs
- Entergy-Commissioned Study Finds Gulf Coast Faces $350 Billion Exposure Due to Climate Change. Entergy Corporation, an electric generation and transmission company, released a study produced by McKinsey & Co. and Swiss Re concluding that the Gulf Coast region of the U.S. faces potential economic losses of approximately $350 billion over the next twenty years due to the expected impacts of climate change and related environmental risks. The combined effects of hurricanes, land subsidence, and sea level rise account for the bulk of the expected damages. The report recommends that Gulf Coast communities consider cost-effective adaptation measures such as improved building codes, roof retrofits, and beach nourishment. According to the study, $50 billion in investments in these measures over the next twenty years could reduce expected damages by $135 billion. The executive summary of the report is available online here.
- NRDC Action Fund Claims Poll Shows Support for Clean Energy Messaging in Swing Districts. The Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund (NRDC Action Fund) released the results of polling of likely voters in 23 competitive House races around the country, arguing that positive messages about comprehensive climate change and clean energy legislation resonate with many voters in these districts. Conducted by Public Policy Polling, the poll asked respondents whether they tended to agree that such legislation would "cost companies money and is like an energy tax," or instead believed such legislation would create "millions of new jobs" and have other economic and environmental benefits. The poll found that a majority of voters in 21 of the 23 districts agreed with the latter view.
- S&P Will Assess Corporate "Carbon Risk" Beginning in 2011. An official at Standard & Poor's announced that the company is developing a formal methodology for assessing corporate exposure to climate change related compliance risks, and will begin incorporating the results into corporate credit ratings beginning in 2011. The methodology reportedly takes into account both direct emissions from corporate activities as well as emissions resulting indirectly from electricity consumption, and estimates the extent to which carbon-related costs can be passed on to consumers. The new practice was prompted by the third phase of the European Union's Emissions Trading System, which will begin in 2012.
Studies and Reports
- NOAA Finds Warming Trends in Arctic May Bring Colder Weather South. The Arctic Report Card 2010 published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that there continues to be significant excess heat storage in the Arctic Ocean at the end of the summer due to continued near-record sea ice loss caused by warmer temperatures. The report found that there is evidence that the higher air temperatures in the lower Arctic in the fall are generating a new connectivity between the changing wind patterns in the Arctic and mid-latitude extreme cold and snowy weather events such as those that occurred last winter, with episodes of cold air from the Arctic blowing south. The report is available at http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/ArcticReportCard_full_report.pdf.
- Research Predicts Severe Droughts in Many Regions from Climate Impacts. Research by Aiguo Dai of the National Center for Atmospheric Research used global climate models and projections of anthropogenic GHG emissions to predict precipitation and aridity patterns during the 21st Century. The model results suggest that climate change will cause drying over most of Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East, most of the Americas (except Alaska, northern Canada, Uruguay, and northeastern Argentina), Australia, and Southeast Asia. If GHG emissions are not mitigated, the study suggests that people living in these regions will likely experience persistent severe droughts beginning in the next 20-50 years, depending upon how natural climate variability enhances or moderates the drying effect. The study also found that recent droughts in the Sahel are due in part to warming of the Indian Ocean caused by rising global temperatures. The article is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.81/full.
International
- EU, Japan Announce Positions on Continuation of the Kyoto Protocol. In preparation for the upcoming international climate change negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, the European Union and Japan announced their positions on whether the Kyoto Protocol should be extended beyond the current commitment period. Environmental ministers from the Council of the European Union (EU) announced the EU position in a set of conclusions that will guide the EU's negotiators at the Cancun negotiations. The conclusions state that although the EU would prefer that the Cancún meeting result in a single, independent treaty that builds on both the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accord, the EU is willing to "consider a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, as part of a wider outcome including the perspective of the global and comprehensive framework engaging all major economies." In contrast, during a speech to a committee of the Japanese Parliament, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan declared that Japan opposes an extension of the Kyoto Protocol and that the negotiations should result in a new and comprehensive treaty that involves all major emitting nations. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012.
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