Regulation - Inside Climate News

Virginia Lawmakers Try to Use Budget to Rejoin RGGI – But Success Is Questionable

By Hannah Chanatry — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 09:05:00 +0000

State lawmakers added an amendment to the budget bill demanding the state rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative but draft changes could prompt a veto from Gov. Youngkin.

By Hannah Chanatry

Closed-door negotiations during Virginia’s budget process may have undercut lawmakers’ plans to rejoin a regional emissions reduction program.

How Clean Energy Tax Breaks Could Fuel a US Wood Burning Boom

By James Bruggers — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 09:05:00 +0000

While the forest biomass industry maneuvers to try to take advantage of new federal climate policy, environmental advocates are pushing back and trying to protect trees.

By James Bruggers

Businesses that burn wood to produce energy have struggled in the United States to compete economically, even as wood-pellet exports to Europe from states like Alabama and North Carolina have soared with overseas subsidies.

California Votes to Consider Health and Environment in Future Energy Planning

By Emma Foehringer Merchant — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 08:30:00 +0000

State regulators approved a plan to determine how to weigh “non-energy benefits” in decisions about energy resources, as the state pursues 100 percent zero-carbon electricity by 2045.

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

The California Energy Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to begin a process to incorporate the value of “non-energy benefits,” such as health impacts and job creation, in future decisions about the state’s energy mix.

Pennsylvania’s Governor Wants to Cut Power Plant Emissions With His Own Cap-and-Invest Program

By Jon Hurdle — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 22:00:00 +0000

Gov. Josh Shapiro promises to pull the state out of a broader cap-and-invest cooperative involving 11 Northeast states, known as RGGI, if lawmakers approve his plan. But Shapiro promised to press on with his appeal of a court ruling that effectively blocked RGGI membership, until his own plan is passed.

By Jon Hurdle

Pennsylvania would run its own cap-and-invest program for cutting carbon emissions from power plants and increase its use of renewable fuels if lawmakers approve two bills outlined by Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday.

Q&A: The Latest in the Battle Over Plastic Bag Bans

By Paloma Beltran, Living on Earth — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Plus, the counterintuitive way one state improved on bag-ban laws.

By Paloma Beltran, Living on Earth

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Paloma Beltran with Judith Enck, former EPA Regional Administrator and president of Beyond Plastics.

LNG Exports From Mexico in Limbo While Pipeline Project Plows Ahead

By Martha Pskowski — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:10:00 +0000

The Biden administration’s pause impacts LNG development in Mexico, where companies eye shorter routes to Asia.

By Martha Pskowski

Leer en Espanol.

Wyoming Considers Relaxing Its Carbon Capture Standards for Electric Utilities, Scrambling Political Alliances on Climate Change and Energy

By Jake Bolster — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:05:00 +0000

A bill lowering the amount of CO2 a utility must capture at its power plants has drawn opposition from two groups usually diametrically opposed to each other’s priorities—environmentalists and climate change skeptics.

By Jake Bolster

As Wyoming nears the end of its 2024 legislative session, clean energy advocates and climate change skeptics find themselves in an uneasy situation: an alliance. Both groups oppose legislation that would weaken and delay the state’s carbon capture requirements, albeit for wildly different reasons.

Colorado River States Have Two Different Plans for Managing Water. Here’s Why They Disagree

By Alex Hager, KUNC — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0000

States in the Upper Basin say climate change hits them hardest and want to reduce the amount of water they release from Lake Powell. Lower Basin states want to include other reservoirs in the calculation of how much is available.

By Alex Hager, KUNC

The seven states that use water from the Colorado River have proposed competing plans for how the river should be managed in the future. They’re split into two factions, with the Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming on one side, and their Lower Basin counterparts—California, Arizona and Nevada—on the other.

Climate Rules Reach Finish Line, in Weakened Form, as Biden Races Clock

By Marianne Lavelle — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:10:00 +0000

Allies have pressured his administration on corporate climate risk disclosure, power plant and vehicle emissions regulations, while foes wait for their chance to roll back rules.

By Marianne Lavelle

This spring was meant to bring a flowering of climate action by President Joe Biden’s administration. But the heat of the 2024 political season has scorched some of its most ambitious plans.

In Florida, Skyrocketing Insurance Rates Test Resolve of Homeowners in Risky Areas

By Amy Green — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:05:00 +0000

Research shows the soaring costs hint at widespread, unpriced risk as the global climate warms, with states like California, Florida and Louisiana hit hardest.

By Amy Green

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.—For most of his life, Cory Infinger has lived down a hill and along a bend in the Little Wekiva River, a gentle stream meandering northwest of Orlando. During Hurricane Ian, in September 2022, the stream swelled, inundating the homes of his family and his neighbors and also the street where they live, making it impassable.