** A shroud of smoke has sent solar power generation in parts of the eastern US plummeting by more than 50% as wildfires rage in Canada. Solar farms powering New England were producing 56% less energy at times of peak demand compared with the week before, according to the region’s grid operator. Electricity generated by …
Category: EPA
Attorney General goes after what he calls “climate change crusaders”
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond offered an explanation this week why he joined 18 other Attorneys General in launching a legal challenge to the EPA’s approval of California’s ban of diesel powered big trucks. “Extreme climate change crusaders are willing to do any amount of damage to the fossil fuels industry, regardless of the …
Energy briefs
** Roaring wildfires burning across Canadian territories have delivered the types of poor air quality that some of the world’s largest, and most polluted, cities face on a daily basis. Smoke plumes from fires burning in the forests of eastern Canada have drifted to cities like Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia, sending them soaring to the …
GOP AGs challenge Biden administration’s trucking decision
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond was one of 19 Republican state attorneys generals and truck driver groups that filed a legal challenge this week to the Biden administration’s approval of California’s clampdown on diesel and gasoline powered trucks. Drummond and the others, led by Iowa, filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals …
Short energy stories
** Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) on Wednesday said it was liquidating the Goldman Sachs MLP and Energy Renaissance Fund (NYSE:GER). GER’s board of trustees, at GSAM’s recommendation, approved a plan of liquidation and dissolution for the fund. ** Climate activists interrupted an event with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday, shouting “dirty deal,” as …
Quick reads
** Votes on Republican bills that pertain to gas stoves were stalled Tuesday after a small group of House Republicans blew up an initial procedural vote. ** A major case alleging contamination by so-called forever chemicals will be postponed 21 days as the manufacturer and plaintiff close in on a deal. Judge Richard Gergel ordered the three-week …
Texas increases pollution fines
Pollution fines in Texas were increased in the just-finished Texas legislative session. Penalties assessed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality were increased from the previous maximum of $25,000 a day to $40,000 per day. It was the first increase since 2011 as reported by Public Health Watch. Click here for Public Health Watch …
Energy headlines from around the world
** Folded into the debt-ceiling bill that passed the Senate on Thursday are measures that could speed up the building of energy projects in the US. They are an update of the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA — long a punching bag for critics on both sides of the aisle who say the environmental permitting process for new projects takes too long …
Federal court stops EPA from enforcing air pollution plan in Missouri
In another case of being accused of “unconstitutional overreach,” the Environmental Protection Agency has been stopped from enforcement of a regulation at reducing air pollution in Missouri. The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put the EPA regulation on hold after state Attorney General Andrew Bailey sought a stay. The stay prevents the EPA …
Headlines
** A draft study led by Columbia University climate scientist James Hansen suggests that the recent rise in temperatures doesn’t come from greenhouse gases at all, but from the reduction in sulfate aerosols since the early-2000s. ** In the final hours of their spring session last week, lawmakers approved a controversial measure that would give existing power …