Energy & Environment — Biden officials target transportation emissions

A new federal program puts more than $6 billion toward reducing emissions from transportation, the EPA is looking at cutting emissions from gas plants and the General Services Administration announces an emissions milestone. 

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Transportation Dept. rolls out $6B to battle emissions

The Federal Highway Administration will put more than $6 billion toward state carbon reduction efforts, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced Wednesday.  

The Carbon Reduction Program (CRP), funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, will go toward local and state projects aimed at reducing on-road highway-based carbon dioxide emissions. These could range from installing infrastructure to electrify freight vehicles to improving the terrain for bicycles.  

What’s in the program? The program will include $6.4 billion in formula funding over a five-year period for states and localities, which would be contingent on reducing transportation-based emissions.  

“As the sector generating the most carbon emissions in the U.S. economy, transportation must play a leading role in solving the climate crisis,” Buttigieg said in a statement. “The Carbon Reduction Program will help reduce pollution from transportation and move us closer to the President’s ambitious goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030.”  

How’s this different from other transportation programs? A Transportation Department official on a press call Wednesday confirmed the program would be distinct from transportation initiatives with similar aims such as the Highway Safety Improvement Program.  

“The idea is to provide states with both funding but also flexibility to allow them to make investments that have to meet the primary purpose of the program… but at the same time giving them flexibility for [the fact that] each state may have a different mix of investments that they want to make,” the official said. “There is of course some overlap with those other programs, but each program has its own rules, its own eligibility.” 

Read more about the program here. 

EPA floats emissions cuts for gas plants 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is floating ways to cut planet-warming emissions for gas-fired power plants as it waits for a Supreme Court ruling that could limit its regulatory power.  

The agency on Thursday issued a new technical “white paper” that laid out potential ways to limit the plants’ contributions to climate change. 

These methods include efficiency improvements, co-firing natural gas with other fuels like hydrogen and implementing carbon capture technology to prevent the plants’ emissions from going into the air and heating the planet.  

The agency said in a statement that its paper is not “targeted” to any specific policy, it expects the paper to help inform its future rulemaking efforts. 

The paper comes ahead of an anticipated Supreme Court ruling that could limit the scope of its authority to regulate power plants’ climate contributions.  

The court is weighing whether the agency can attempt to reshape parts of the economy like the energy sector through regulation, or if its powers are confined to the source of the climate pollution.  

EPA administrator Michael Regan indicated to Congress that he was awaiting that decision to move ahead with power plant regulations. 

“We’re going to be ready to go as soon as the Supreme Court rules,” he said. 

The story so far: Power plant regulations have been at the center of a major partisan battle. The Obama administration put forward a “Clean Power Plan” that sought to limit emissions from both coal and gas plants.  

It also sought to set emissions targets aiming to move away from coal plants in particular. 

The Trump administration repealed that plan and only put forward regulations for coal plants. The Trump plan was expected to have significantly fewer climate benefits than the Obama plan. 

Read more about the plan here. 

GSA ANNOUNCES EMISSIONS CUT MILESTONE

The General Services Administration (GSA) — the federal agency in charge of government products, services and facilities — announced a major milestone toward its climate goals on Thursday.  

The agency said that, compared to a 2008 baseline level, federal building owns and leases have cut their emissions by 51 percent. This represents savings of 1.1 million tons of emissions each year compared to 2008, the agency said.  

GSA said this puts it “more than a decade” ahead of the government-wide goal of cutting emissions in half by 2032.  

“We’re thrilled to reach this milestone, and we’ll keep pushing to reach the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045,” GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan said in a statement. 

“As a country, we must continue to invest in and upgrade our over 1,500 owned federal properties to build a cleaner, healthier future for America,” Carnahan added.  

As part of his overall strategy to cut the country’s contribution to climate change, President Biden has called on the federal government to cut its own emissions, calling on it to reach carbon neutrality at the same time as the rest of the country in 2050. 

He has also pushed for the federal government to buy greener products like electric vehicles, though this has run into hurdles at the Postal Service, a major owner of government vehicles, which is led by an appointee of former President Trump. 

Read more about the announcement here. 

DARK GREEN

Dominant social media companies fail to disclose their policies to combat climate misinformation, climate and human rights groups said in a new report released Wednesday.  

The report, released by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Avaaz, ranked the public policies on climate misinformation from Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter.  

The report said the companies are “largely leaving the public in the dark” about efforts to combat such misinformation. 

“There is a gross lack of transparency, as these companies conceal much of the data about the prevalence of digital climate dis/misinformation and any internal measures taken to address its spread. Pinterest and YouTube have taken notable steps to address climate dis/ misinformation, while Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter trail behind in their efforts,” the report states.  

Based on the criteria the groups used to gauge the scope and transparency of the platforms’ policies, Twitter was ranked the worst. 

TikTok was ranked second to last, with Facebook just above it. Pinterest and YouTube were both in the top spot, but even those companies received just 14 out of the 27 total points the report used to assess the policies.  

Read more about from The Hill’s Rebecca Klar. 

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WHAT WE’RE READING

• CA wildfire victims lobbyist ousted over sex harassment case (The Sacramento Bee)
• Biden’s Oil Country EPA Chief Builds Bridges With GOP, Industry (Bloomberg Law) 
• EPA Unions Want Science Protected Against Another Trump (BuzzFeed News) 
• Oil Trade Group Drafts Carbon-Tax Proposal That Could Raise Prices at the Pump (The Wall Street Journal) 
  
  

ICYMI

• Carbon emissions from flaring hit 10-year low in 2021 
• House introduces cyber bill intended to safeguard energy sectors 
• Kerry: ‘I don’t see the evidence yet’ that nations are cutting emissions 
• Yellen: European ban on Russian energy may do more harm than good 
• Business group ruffles feathers with GOP after key policy recommendation
• 137 million in US live with unhealthy levels of air pollution: American Lung Association 

    And finally, something offbeat and off-beat: A bit off. 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Energy & Environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.  

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