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Mr. Biden has so far created five national monuments and expanded two others, part of his pledge to conserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. Last year, Mr. Biden gave a national monument designation to half a million acres of the Spirit Mountain area in southern Nevada. To date, Mr. Biden has preserved more than 41 million acres of land and waters. The San Gabriel monument encompasses 342,177 acres of the Angeles National Forest and 4,002 acres of neighboring San Bernardino National Forest. The expanded national monument includes a unique scenic railroad, grand recreation resorts and Nike missile facilities that date from the Cold War.
Persons: Biden, Avi Kwa, Trump, Biden’s, Molok, , Deb Haaland Organizations: Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest, Nike Locations: Arizona, Nevada, Cocopah, Utah, Gabriel, San, Napa , Yolo, Solano, Lake, Colusa, Glenn, Mendocino Counties, American
The Biden administration’s move on Thursday to strictly limit pollution from coal-burning power plants is a major policy shift. But in many ways it’s one more hairpin turn in a zigzag approach to environmental regulation in the United States, a pattern that has grown more extreme as the political landscape has become more polarized. Now President Biden is trying once more to put an end to carbon emissions from coal plants. But Mr. Trump, who is running to replace Mr. Biden, has promised that he will again delete those plans if he wins in November. If Mr. Trump wins the presidency, he is likely to exit the accord.
Persons: Barack Obama, Donald J, Trump, Biden, Obama Organizations: Biden, Republican, United States, Mr, Democratic, White Locations: United States, Paris
The Biden administration on Thursday placed the final cornerstone of its plan to tackle climate change: a regulation that would force the nation’s coal-fired power plants to virtually eliminate the planet-warming pollution that they release into the air or shut down. The regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency requires coal plants in the United States to reduce 90 percent of their greenhouse pollution by 2039, one year earlier than the agency had initially proposed. The compressed timeline was welcomed by climate activists but condemned by coal executives who said the new standards would be impossible to meet. also imposed three additional regulations on coal-burning power plants, including stricter limits on emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin linked to developmental damage in children, from plants that burn lignite coal, the lowest grade of coal. The rules also more tightly restrict the seepage of toxic ash from coal plants into water supplies and limit the discharge of wastewater from coal plants.
Persons: Biden Organizations: Environmental, Agency Locations: United States
The most consequential of the new rules is aimed at nearly eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from the coal plants. Once implemented, the rules are widely expected to result in the shuttering of nearly all the nation’s remaining coal plants by 2040. Here’s what to know about President Biden’s new moves to clean up coal power. There is no widely used technology available to substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plant smokestacks. The cheapest way to comply may be to just shut down the nation’s roughly 200 remaining coal plants.
Persons: Biden, Biden’s Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency Locations: America, United States
The Biden administration is designating two “forever chemicals,” man-made compounds that are linked to serious health risks, as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, shifting responsibility for their cleanup to polluters from taxpayers. The compounds, found in everything from dental floss to firefighting foams to children’s toys, are called forever chemicals because they degrade very slowly and can accumulate in the body and the environment. The chemicals are so ubiquitous that they can be detected in the blood of almost every person in the United States. One recent government study discovered PFAS chemicals in nearly half of the nation’s tap water. found the chemicals could cause harm at levels “much lower than previously understood” and that almost no level of exposure was safe.
Persons: Biden Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency Locations: United States
The Biden administration raised the royalty rates that fossil fuel companies pay the government in order to drill and mine on public lands, the first time since 1920 that those fees have increased. One way to think about it is this: the nation’s largest property owner, the federal government, effectively charges rent to oil and gas companies that exploit public land for private profit. Here’s what to know about the changes announced Friday:Does the new rule prohibit oil and gas companies from drilling on public lands? Despite a pledge he made as a candidate (“No more drilling on public lands, period”), Mr. Biden has not stopped oil and gas drilling on federal land or in federal waters. The administration said the proceeds would help to clean up the environmental damage from approximately 3.5 million oil and gas wells on federal property that have been abandoned.
Persons: Biden Organizations: Treasury Department and Interior
The Biden administration on Friday made it more expensive for fossil fuel companies to pull oil, gas and coal from public lands, raising royalty rates for the first time in 100 years in a bid to end bargain basement fees enjoyed by one of the country’s most profitable industries. The government also increased more than tenfold the cost of the bonds that companies must secure before they start drilling. The new rules are among a series of environmental regulations that are being pushed out as President Biden, in the last year of his term in the White House, seeks to cement policies designed to protect public lands, lower fossil fuel emissions and expand renewable energy. While the oil and gas industry is strongly opposed to higher rates, the increase is not expected to significantly discourage drilling. The federal rate had been much lower than what many states and private landowners charge for drilling leases on state or private property.
Persons: Biden
The Biden administration on Friday announced a regulation designed to turbocharge sales of electric or other zero-emission heavy vehicles, from school buses to cement mixers, as part of its multifront attack on global warming. Today, fewer than 2 percent of new heavy trucks sold in the United States fit that bill. The regulation would apply to more than 100 types of vehicles including tractor-trailers, ambulances, R.V.s, garbage trucks and moving vans. The rule does not mandate the sales of electric trucks or any other type of zero or low-emission truck. Options could include using technologies like hybrids or hydrogen fuel cells or sharply increasing the fuel efficiency of the conventional trucks.
Persons: Biden Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency Locations: United States
President Biden has tapped John Podesta, his adviser on clean energy and a seasoned political strategist, to succeed John Kerry as his global representative on climate, the White House confirmed on Wednesday. Mr. Podesta, 75, will take on that international role in addition to his current White House job overseeing $370 billion in spending on clean energy projects under the landmark 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Mr. Kerry, 80, has told the White House that he intends to step down by the spring but has not given a specific date. Mr. Podesta will take on the role in a slightly different capacity because, under a recently passed law, the job of special envoy would require Senate confirmation. Jeffrey Zients, Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, called Mr. Podesta “a fierce champion for bold climate action.”
Persons: Biden, John Podesta, John Kerry, Mr . Podesta, Kerry, Mr, Podesta, Jeffrey Zients, Biden’s, Podesta “ Organizations: White House, House, White
The Biden administration is pausing a decision on whether to approve what would be the largest natural gas export terminal in the United States, a delay that could stretch past the November election and spell trouble for that project and 16 other proposed terminals, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The Energy Department has never rejected a proposed natural gas project because of its expected environmental impact. The move comes as Mr. Biden gears up for what is likely to be a contentious re-election campaign. It also comes as the United States leads the world in both liquefied natural gas exports and oil and gas production. The country has seven export terminals with five more already under construction.
Persons: Biden Organizations: Energy Department Locations: United States, Alaska
The Biden administration’s crackdown on methane leaks from oil wells is based in part on a new powerful policy tool that could strengthen its legal authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions across the entire economy — including from cars, power plants, factories and oil refineries. New limits on methane, announced Saturday by the Environmental Protection Agency during the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, take aim at just one source of climate warming pollution. Methane, which spews from oil and gas drilling sites, is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide when it comes to heating the atmosphere in the short term. The number, known as the “social cost of carbon,” has been used since the Obama administration to calculate the harm to the economy caused by one ton of carbon dioxide pollution. The metric is used to weigh the economic benefits and costs of regulations that apply to polluting industries, such as transportation and energy.
Persons: , Obama Organizations: Biden, Environmental Protection Agency Locations: Dubai
The Biden administration is proposing new restrictions that would require the removal of virtually all lead water pipes across the country in an effort to prevent another public health catastrophe like the one that came to define Flint, Mich. The proposal on Thursday from the Environmental Protection Agency would impose the strictest limits on lead in drinking water since federal standards were first set 30 years ago. “This is the strongest lead rule that the nation has ever seen,” Radhika Fox, the E.P.A.’s assistant administrator for water, said in an interview. “This is historic progress.”Digging up and replacing lead pipes from coast to coast is no small undertaking. estimates the price at $20 billion to $30 billion over the course of a decade.
Persons: Biden, ” Radhika Fox, Organizations: Environmental, Agency Locations: Flint, Mich
Still, analysts say, electric vehicle sales are projected to jump sharply under the right conditions. Administration officials must speed the deployment of charging stations meant to ease the logistics of owning and driving an electric vehicle. Mr. Biden is trying to jump-start the electric vehicle market as the global transition to cleaner fuels is accelerating more quickly than expected. The administration’s policies to boost electric vehicles aren’t just aimed at climate change. Without an American supply chain, electric vehicles can’t qualify for the full $7,500 consumer tax credit the law created.
Persons: Biden, — they’re, , Rhett Ricart Organizations: Ricart Automotive, National Automobile Dealers Association Locations: U.S, America, Columbus , Ohio
Gavin Newsom, the California governor, packed his bags and his ambition Monday and flew to Chinese provinces on a weeklong mission to negotiate climate agreements. Last month, he was the only American invited to address the United Nations about climate change, where he excoriated the fossil fuel industry for what he called its decades of “deceit and denial.”He has signed a raft of laws and regulations to speed the nation’s most populous state away from fossil fuels, including a ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 and a mandate to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2045. He wants to end oil drilling in his state, a major oil producer, also by 2045. The two-term Democratic governor wants California to set an aggressive pace for the nation — and the world — as time is running out to deeply cut the carbon emissions that are dangerously heating the planet. Mr. Newsom’s bold moves on climate have elevated his national profile, just as he is widely believed to be preparing for a White House run in 2028.
Persons: Gavin Newsom Organizations: Democratic Locations: California, Nations
Gavin Newsom of California said on Sunday that he would sign a landmark climate bill that passed the state’s legislature last week requiring major companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, a move with national and global repercussions. Climate policy advocates have long argued that such disclosures are an essential first step in efforts to harness financial markets to rein in planet-warming pollution. For example, when investors are made aware of the climate-warming impacts of a company, they may choose to steer their money elsewhere. The law would apply to public and private businesses that make more than $1 billion annually and operate in California. But because the state is the world’s fifth-largest economy, California often sets the trend for the nation, and many of the affected businesses are global corporations.
Persons: Gavin Newsom Locations: California
If President Biden wins a second term, his climate policies would take aim at steel and cement plants, factories and oil refineries — heavily polluting industries that have never before had to rein in their heat-trapping greenhouse gases. New controls on industrial facilities, which his advisers have begun to map out and described in recent interviews, could combine with actions taken on power plants and vehicles during his first term to help meet the president’s goal of eliminating fossil fuel pollution by 2050, analysts said. Industrialized nations must hit that target if the world has any hope to avoid the most catastrophic impacts from climate change, according to scientists. But talking about more regulations at the start of what promises to be a bruising election cycle is perilous, strategists said. In particular, the prospect of new mandates from Washington regarding steel and cement, the bedrock materials of American construction, could sour the swing-state union workers courted by Mr. Biden.
Persons: Biden, , John Larsen, Mr . Biden Organizations: White Locations: Washington
The Energy Department announced on Thursday that it had made $2 billion in grants and $10 billion in loans available to auto companies to convert existing factories that build gas-powered cars and trucks into plants that produce hybrid and electric vehicles. The money, provided under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, is aimed at maintaining jobs in communities that have been defined by the auto industry. It comes as President Biden is seeking the endorsement of the United Auto Workers union, which has expressed concern over recent decisions by carmakers to ramp up electric vehicle manufacturing, which requires fewer workers, and to locate new factories in states without unionized labor. As part of his climate agenda, Mr. Biden is combining federal investments with an aggressive new regulatory proposal to try to ensure that two-thirds of all new cars sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032, up from about 7 percent today. Transportation is responsible for about one-third of the greenhouse gases generated by the United States, pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.
Persons: Biden, Biden’s Organizations: Energy Department, United Auto Workers union, Transportation Locations: United States
The Biden administration will spend $1.2 billion to help build the nation’s first two commercial-scale plants to vacuum carbon dioxide pollution from the atmosphere, a nascent technology that some scientists say could be a breakthrough in the fight against global warming, but that others fear is an extravagant boondoggle. Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary, announced Friday that her agency would fund two pilot projects that would deploy the disputed technology, known as direct air capture. Occidental Petroleum will build one of the plants in Kleberg County, Texas, and Battelle, a nonprofit research organization, will build the other in Calcasieu Parish on the Louisiana coast. The federal government and the companies will equally split the cost of building the facilities. “These projects are going to help us prove out the potential of these next-generation technologies so that we can add them to our climate crisis fighting arsenal, and one of those technologies includes direct air capture, which is essentially giant vacuums that can suck decades of old carbon pollution straight out of the sky,” Ms. Granholm said on a telephone call with reporters on Thursday.
Persons: Biden, Jennifer Granholm, Ms, Granholm Organizations: Occidental Petroleum, Battelle Locations: Kleberg County , Texas, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
This summer, unrelenting heat waves have taken a devastating toll in many parts of the world, putting this year on track to be the hottest ever recorded. Coral Davenport, who covers energy and environmental policy for The Times, and Dana Smith, a reporter for the Well section, discuss what it means to live in this new normal, an era in which extreme heat threatens our way of life.
Persons: Coral Davenport, Dana Smith Organizations: The Times
As much of the United States swelters under record heat, Amazon drivers and warehouse workers have gone on strike in part to protest working conditions that can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. On triple-digit days in Orlando, utility crews are postponing checks for gas leaks, since digging outdoors dressed in heavy safety gear could endanger their lives. Even in Michigan, on the nation’s northern border, construction crews are working shortened days because of heat. Now that climate change has raised the Earth’s temperatures to the highest levels in recorded history, with projections showing that they will only climb further, new research shows the impact of heat on workers is spreading across the economy and lowering productivity. Extreme heat is regularly affecting workers beyond expected industries like agriculture and construction.
Organizations: United Locations: United States, Orlando, Michigan
That would be the equivalent of taking more than 233 million vehicles off the road from 2022 through 2050. “Better vehicle fuel efficiency means more money in Americans’ pockets and stronger energy security for the entire nation,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. The administration is aiming to ensure that two-thirds of all new passenger cars sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032, up from just 5.8 percent last year. Both agencies will take public comment on the rules, and then go back to the drawing board before issuing the final, legally enforceable rules next year. But, should a Republican win the White House in 2024, the new president could begin the legal process of rolling back the rules.
Persons: Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s, , Michael Gerrard Organizations: Transportation Department, Environmental Protection Agency, United, Columbia University, Transportation, Republican, White House Locations: United States
The Biden administration on Thursday proposed a rule that would raise the royalties that fossil fuel companies pay to pull oil, gas and coal from public lands for the first time since 1920, while increasing more than tenfold the cost of the bonds that companies must pay before they start drilling. The Interior Department estimated that the new rule, which would also raise various other rates and fees for drilling on public lands, would increase costs for fossil fuel companies by about $1.8 billion between now and 2031. After that, rates could increase again. About half of that money would go to states while a third would be used to fund water projects in the West. Officials at the Interior Department characterize the changes as part of a broader shift as it seeks to address climate change by expanding renewable energy on public land and in federal waters while making it more expensive for private companies to drill there.
Persons: Biden Organizations: Interior Department, West
The LatestA federal court in Richmond has halted construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, setting off a battle with Congress that could end up at the Supreme Court. It was a highly unusual provision that was tucked into legislation that had nothing to do with pipelines — the law to raise the debt ceiling. Congress also included provisions to expedite construction of the pipeline and insulate it from judicial review. Those elements were added as a concession to Senator Joe Manchin III, the West Virginia Democrat whose vote has been crucial to President Biden’s domestic agenda. But environmentalists, Democratic members of the Virginia congressional delegation and some constitutional law experts argue that by directing a change in courts, Congress has violated the separation of powers clause in the Constitution.
Persons: Joe Manchin III, Biden’s Organizations: Supreme, U.S, Appeals, Fourth Circuit, Congress, U.S ., District of Columbia Circuit, West Virginia Democrat, Democratic Locations: Richmond, West Virginia, Virginia
The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed to strengthen requirements for the removal of lead-based paint in homes and child care facilities built before 1978 to try to eliminate exposure to lead, which can damage the brain and nervous system, particularly in children. If finalized, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the regulation would reduce exposure to lead for as many as 500,000 young children per year. “There is no safe level of lead,” said Michal Freedhoff, the Environmental Protection Agency’s assistant administrator for the office of Chemical Safety and Pollution. “Even low levels are detrimental to children’s health, and this proposal would bring us closer to eradicating lead-based paint hazards from homes and child care facilities across the U.S. once and for all.”The new limits could require millions of homeowners and hundreds of thousands of child care facilities to check for dust and pay for abatement. “It dramatically increases the number of facilities that could be required to inspect and remediate lead paint hazards,” Ms. Feedhoff said.
Persons: Biden, , Michal Freedhoff, Ms, Feedhoff Organizations: Environmental, Agency, Chemical Safety Locations: U.S
From toxic algal blooms in the Great Lakes to sewage pouring into Detroit basements to choking wildfire smoke that drifted south from Canada, Michigan has been contending with the fallout from climate change. Even the state’s famed cherry trees have been struggling against rising temperatures, forcing some farmers to abandon the crop. The centerpiece is based on a 58-page “MI Healthy Climate” plan offered by Gov. It would require Michigan to generate all of its electricity from solar, wind or other carbon-free sources by 2035, eliminating the state’s greenhouse pollution generated by coal- and gas-fired power plants. The package would also toughen energy efficiency requirements for electric utilities and require a phaseout of coal-fired plants in the state by 2030.
Persons: Gretchen Whitmer Organizations: Gov Locations: Great, Detroit, Canada , Michigan, Michigan
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